International Private Investigations

2007-06-26T14:19:00.000+02:00

Bundeswehr Accused of Deleting Secret Intelligence Files

Secret German military and intelligence files from 1998 to 2003 were reported to have gone missing due to technical malfunction, according to German media reports, leaving some to wonder if they were deleted on purpose.

A German parliamentary committee received a new answer to its request to see a set of classified military files from 2002: A "technical failure" led the data over the four-year span to be irrecoverably destroyed, German public broadcaster ARD reported Monday.

Information regarding four years worth of information sent back from military troops stationed in Afghanistan and Kosovo, the Federal Intelligence Agency, military attaches and foreign intelligence services is thought to be among the data destroyed at the Defense Ministry's Center for Bundeswehr Communications, according to the ARD report.

Details of possible German involvement in a secret US-run prison in Bosnia, where terror suspects were allegedly interrogated before and after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, are also missing, according to a report in Tuesday's daily Berliner Zeitung.

"That the information is gone has probably made things easier for some of the people who where were in charge back then," an anonymous security expert told the paper.

Destroyed in accordance with regulations

Bernhard Docke, a lawyer for Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turk who was held without charges for five years at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told the dpa news agency that he suspected data about his client was intentionally deleted.

However, he added that he had enough information to file charges of abuse against members of the German military who allegedly interrogated Kurnaz.

In a letter to a parliamentary committee, Deputy Defense Minister Peter Wichert wrote that the data was transferred to a single set of tapes that could later not be read.

"An attempt to read the tapes in a replacement device to restore the data failed," he wrote. "In accordance with the current regulations dealing with the classified material, the no longer readable tapes were destroyed on July 4, 2005."

German politicians, however, were skeptical of the defense ministry's statement that the technical failure and limited memory capacity in the system tasked with saving the intelligence reports made the lost information irretrievable.

'Smells of premediatation'

Green party politician Hans-Christian Ströbele, who is a member of the intelligence services' parliamentary oversight committee, said he received a letter from Wichert in November in which there was "no mention of the data being gone," Ströble told the Neue Presse on Tuesday.

"Sometimes the answer was that I can't have the information, sometimes the answer was that the KSK (an elite Germany military unit) wasn't involved in the activities," Ströbele said of other information requests he had made. "The answer was never: 'We do not have the information.'"

Intelligence service expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom said the defense ministry's decision not to request the help of other government departments or data retrieval specialists "smells of premeditation.

"There is the Federal Criminal Police Office and several highly specialized companies that have long been in a position to save and reconstitute damaged data storage devices," he told the Berliner Zeitung.

DW staff (sms)

Deutsche Welle 06/2007

2007-06-25T15:14:00.000+02:00

Air Berlin Executives Accused of Insider Trading

German prosecutors said on Tuesday that they had raided the homes and offices of top executives of German low-cost carrier Air Berlin as part of an investigation into possible insider trading.

About 50 police officers and employees of the financial sector watchdog BaFin had searched a total of 10 premises in Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf and Langenfeld on Tuesday morning as part of the probe, the Stuttgart public prosecutors said in a statement.

The investigation centered on at least five officials, including chief executive Joachim Hunold, and supervisory board head Johannes Zurnieden, they added. The insider trading allegations are connected with Air Berlin's takeover of rival airline DBA last year.

"There is a suspicion that the accused made use of insider knowledge over the planned takeover of a Munich-based airline by a Berlin-based airline," the prosecutors' statement said.

Effect on stock price was unclear

The company officials are suspected of having bought around 1.5 million euros ($2.0 million) of Air Berlin shares in June 2006, shortly after having signed a confidentiality agreement and just before takeover talks began.

Hunold and Zurnieden are suspected of having bought 1.47 million euros worth of shares alone, the prosecutors said.

Hunold, a media-savvy businessman who has led the airline's rapid expansion, confirmed he was among those named in the inquiry and issued a statement denying the allegations.

"There was no knowing how much or even if the share price of Air Berlin would rise after the announcement," he said. "I first bought shares at the start of June 2006 when a lock-up period imposed on me under stock-exchange rules had expired."

He said all the purchases had been duly reported to financial regulators and disclosed online.

"Absurd inquiry"

Air Berlin spokesman Peter Hauptvogel added that the shares were bought well before Air Berlin decided to buy DBA, a move that sent the Berlin airline's stocks soaring.

Hauptvogel, who said searches were also made at the homes of the suspects, described the inquiry as "absurd," adding that it involved relatively modest sums of money.

Air Berlin, Germany's second largest airline after Lufthansa, acquired DBA in August 2006 in a bid to take on flag carrier Lufthansa in the fierce battle for domination in the skies above Germany.

DW staff (sms)

Deutsche Welle 06/2007

2007-03-30T13:00:00.000+02:00

"Internal Corruption Remains a Problem in the European Union"

Dutch MEP and former assistant auditor of the Financial Control Directorate Paul van Buitenen was the whistleblower who brought down the EU Commission in 1999. He talked to DW-WORLD.DE about current corruption in the EU.

Paul van Buitenen, a Dutch MEP in the European Parliament and former assistant auditor of the Financial Control Directorate, believes that the fight against corruption in Europe has made little progress since new initiatives were set up in the wake of the EU's biggest scandal which brought down the Commission in 1999.

DW-WORLD: Is there structural corruption in the EU?

Paul van Buitenen: The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has had success in combating external corruption in the member states, but it is in the internal cases where it has found problems. Working with the EU authorities makes it very difficult to proceed in an investigation. Officially, OLAF is an independent body, but it functions within the EU Commission; in the commission building, on the commission's computer network and works with commission investigators. OLAF's independence exists only on paper.

Which of the EU organizations are especially susceptible to corruption?

OLAF has investigated the European Commission for Regional Policy and has confirmed through investigation that corruption has taken place there over a number of years. The commission works with local and municipal bodies in the member states and encourages them engage with Brussels. However, no important decisions are made on the recommendation of the committee so once could basically abolish the organization completely and save the EU some 70 million euros ($93.4 million). Plus, some members have been shown to have unexplained extra salaries and OLAF has discovered a number of discrepancies in reports. Every time the committee is approached about corruption, it promises to improve the situation. But then a new case arises.

How is the situation in the EU parliament?

There is corruption, but these are special cases. There are always conflicts of interests everywhere. If someone sits on the supervisory board of a big automobile company, that person should not write in the European Parliament guidelines on subjects like fuel or manufacture. But I do not go around the building with a camera to see what my colleagues do. I concentrate on the big deception cases and irregularities with European implications.

Which new measures would be necessary to fight against corruption?

In some states, like Germany or Holland, controlling possibilities already exist; there are independent judicial authorities and a strong parliament. At a European level, however, there is not a democracy, but a bureaucracy. We must decide if we are to continue with the European arrangement. If we do, then we must also create these democratic structures at European level. Otherwise we should revert to allowing the national authorities and parliaments to take over the controlling functions again. But at the moment, as it stands, everything goes wrong.

When you uncovered the EU Commission scandal in 1999 which brought down the commission, you were punished. Has the situation changed?

I would say: Things have got even worse. There is now a regulation which supposedly protects so-called whistleblowers which makes officials believe that they can uncover scandals. But in reality, if one does this, they are destroyed. So the regulation does not work. If a committee official, like in the 1999 case, is suspected of corruption, he is moved to another department at the beginning of the inquiries so he can no longer carry out those activities -- but he continues to be employed and still gets his salary. But if people like me sound the alarm, we are suspended and sometimes have our salary halved. Something is not right here.

Dennis Stute interviewed Paul van Buitenen, representative of the Europe Transparent anti-corruption party in the European Parliament.

Deutsche Welle 03/2007

2007-03-30T12:54:00.000+02:00

Italians Charged in EU Fraud Scandal

Three Italian nationals have been charged and are being held in custody in Brussels as part of a corruption probe into tenders awarded by the European Commission.

The three include a civil servant working for the European Commission, an assistant to a member of the European Parliament and a businessman, Belgian prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The three men, who live in Belgium and whose names were not given, were charged with forgery and using forged documents, corruption, fraud and forming a criminal organization, said spokesman Jos Colpin.

Large-scale bribery

"There were bribes of millions of euros for more than 10 years," Colpin said.

The bribes were paid in relation to public tenders for buildings housing "European Commission delegations outside of EU territory," he said.

The civil servant, aged 46, works for the Commission services responsible for managing delegations' infrastructure.

The second person charged, aged 60, is the personal assistant of an Italian member of the European Parliament and the third person, 39, runs a real estate consortium.

The arrests came after more than 150 police officers took part on Tuesday in raids in Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg as part of the corruption probe.

Ongoing investigation

The three-year old investigation is looking into the circumstances for awarding tenders for the European Commission representation offices abroad and contracts for the installation of security equipment at those locations.

The European Commission on Tuesday said it was cooperating fully with the inquiry.

"It's an ongoing investigation so it's not appropriate at this time for the Commission to comment on this investigation," said spokesperson Johannes Laitenberger at a news briefing.

The EU's anti-fraud office OLAF, the Italian Carabinieri, French financial police, and Belgian federal and fraud squad officers participated in the raids.

Touchy subject

Corruption cases at EU institutions are a sensitive issue after a scandal in the late 1990s brought the entire European Commission down.

Edith Cresson, a former French Prime Minister who served as research and education commissioner in Brussels from 1995 to 1999, was accused of hiring a dentist from her home town as an advisor, despite being warned it was against EU rules.

The scandal eventually led to the collective resignation of the Commission and its President at the time, Jacques Santer, in March 1999.

DW staff / AFP (kh)

Deutsche Welle 03/2007

2007-03-03T13:59:00.000+01:00

Police Fear New Riots in Copenhagen After Street Clashes

Police in Copenhagen were gearing up Friday for a second day of riots as radical activists protested against the eviction of squatters from an underground cultural youth centre.

Police officers were out in full force on Friday, patrolling the troubled Copenhagen neighborhoods of Noerrebro and Christianshavn where 217 people were arrested on Thursday after left-wing activists clashed with police.

"We will be on the streets as long as it takes and with as many men as it takes to keep the peace," police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told AFP, adding that police reinforcements had been called in from across the country.

A group of 18 demonstrators entered the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party on Friday around midday, unfurling a banner reading: "You stole the youths' building, now we're taking yours", but the situation remained calm, protestors said.

Demonstrators clash with police

The group, calling itself the Action Group for Frustrated Copenhagen Residents, demanded a political solution to the conflict which erupted when thousands of youths attacked police after a dawn raid to evict squatters from the Ungdomshuset, a four-storey haven for rebels, punks and squatters in the Norrebro district.

The building has been a favorite haunt for left-wingers since the 1980s when the city of Copenhagen gave the group permission to move into the building.

On Thursday activists threw stones, bottles, pots of paint, firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, and set up barricades, lit fires and overturned vehicles to protest the eviction.

Riot police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the emonstrators, some of whom were masked.

"We were surprised by the extent of the conflict and the demonstrators' wild violence," Steen Munch said. The Noerrebro neighborhood is home to a large population of young radicals and squatters and is the scene of regular flare-ups with police.

In May 1993, bloody clashes erupted following Denmark's "yes" vote to the Maastricht treaty that led to the creation of the European Union and the euro single currency.

By late Thursday the violence had spread out from Noerrebro to the nearby district of Christianshavn. Christianshavn is next to the so-called "free city" of Christiania, an autonomous community in the city set up more than 30 years ago.

"Utterly reprehensible"

Danish politicians reacted with shock to the events. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen "vigorously condemned" Thursday's riots.

"It is utterly reprehensible that a few trouble-makers continue to create disorder," he told Danish news agency Ritzau.Justice Minister Lene Espersen told Danish television channel TV2 she was shocked by protestors' violence.

"We have freedom of expression in Denmark and it is shocking to see the use of violence and cobble stones to show what one thinks," Espersen said.

The Ungdomshuset was recently sold to the fundamental Christian group Fadershuset, which has demanded the eviction of the youths. An August 2006 court ruling ordered the occupants to be evicted from the centre, which they insist belongs to them.

The building has been a popular hang-out for Copenhagen's alternative crowd, offering concerts, plays and debates. Big stars such as Icelandic pop artist Björk have performed at the venue.

The Ungdomshuset Web site says the group is run along five simple guidelines: no sexism, no "heterosexism" -- prejudice in favor of heterosexuals -- no racism, no hard drugs and no violence.

Some onlookers at the scene on Thursday were critical of the Danish police action.

One Noerrebro resident described the operation as something resembling "the dismantling of a terrorist network."

Kristina Ilsoe, a Roskilde University professor who watched the events with her three-year-old son at her side, said she was "sad, like most of the neighbors, to see so-called tolerant Denmark not leave room for those who don't fit the norm."

Some banks and stores in the area barricaded their entrances to protect their businesses.

Foreigners arrested

Police meanwhile said they were re-establishing border controls o prevent an influx of supporters from other countries, in particular southern neighbor Germany.

Among the 217 arrested on Thursday were 17 foreigners from France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Lithuania, New Zealand and the United States. The German foreign ministry confirmed that nine Germans were among those held.

Three police officers and three demonstrators were injured during the clashes, police said.

Meanwhile, German police said on Friday they had detained 16 people after demonstrations broke out in the cities of Hamburg and Hanover in solidarity with the squatters evicted in Denmark.

On Friday the majority of Danish politicians, with the exception of the extreme-left, hailed the police action and denounced the activists' violence.

The press meanwhile unanimously condemned the "street wars" and "chaos."

According to the Danish foreign ministry, demonstrations supporting the activists were held in front of Denmark's diplomatic missions in Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Flensburg and Vienna.

DW staff / AFP (sp)

Deutsche Welle 03/2007

2007-03-03T13:44:00.000+01:00

Germany Debates Locking Up Dangerous Criminals

The abuse and murder of a nine-year-old boy by a convicted sex offender in the German city of Leipzig has sparked a heated debate about whether society's worst offenders should be locked away permanently if needed.

The disappearance of a nine-year-old child in the eastern German city of Leipzig last week would usually have made local news, but this case sparked headlines in major newspapers and on television because the victim had been abused and murdered by a convicted sex offender and serial rapist who had spent several years in prison.

The victim, identified only as Mitja, didn't come home from school last Thursday and was last seen sitting next to his suspected murderer, 43-year-old Uwe Kolbig, in a tram in Leipzig, according to footage from video surveillance cameras.

Police in Leipzig discovered the child's corpse among the bushes on Kolbig's property. Kolbig, who is now in custody after attempting to commit suicide in Leipzig, allegedly sexually abused and then suffocated Mitja.

"Protecting children is top priority"

The case has triggered fury among politicians and the public alike who demand to know how a convicted sex offender could have been roaming freely in the city.

Markus Söder, Secretary General of the Bavarian-based Christian Social Union party demanded that pedophiles be locked away forever.

"Children are our most valuable resource, protecting them has top priority," Söder told Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel. "That's why life-long preventive custody for pedophiles should become the norm."

Preventive custody, aimed at stemming further crimes, was first introduced in Germany in 1933. It only applies to repeat offenders and is an add-on to the prison sentence that forces criminals to remain in prison until they are no longer deemed a danger to society.

Preventive custody for dangerous criminals has become the rallying point of a growing debate in Germany on children's safety fuelled by a spate of highly-publicized cases in recent years, many of them involving rape and sexual abuse, in which minors have been the victims of repeat sex offenders.

Widening the law?

In 2005, a nine-year-old boy in Bavaria was molested and strangled to death by a recently released child murderer, Martin Prinz. When he was 18, Prinz had been convicted for stabbing an 11-year-old to death after attempting to rape him. The suspect in the current Leipzig case, Kolbig, was 17 years old when first sentenced for sexually abusing children.

Under German law, preventive custody currently only applies to criminals over 21.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries this week, however, indicated she may expand the law to cover younger criminals who are sentenced to a minimum of seven years for serious offenses.

That would mean dangerous criminals, including sex offenders and murderers, who committed crimes before they turned 21, could then be treated as adult criminals. Psychologists would evaluate their cases every year to determine if they pose a threat to society. That means thereotically they could even be locked away indefinitely.

Controversial proposal

The proposal is controversial and has deeply divided opinion. Advocates say the measure would protect citizens from some of society's worst offenders who fail to reform after long prison sentences and therapy.

"The move is long overdue and is particularly crucial when it comes to sex offenders," said Georg Ehrmann, chairman of the board of Deutsche Kinderhilfe Direkt, a charity that works for ill and disadvantaged children. "Studies have shown that those who commit sex offences at a young age suffer psychological damage that lasts a lifetime. So their drive for sex crimes only gets worse with age."

However, those familiar with the law's reach argue that the measure would be catastrophic and rob young criminals of any chance of reintegrating back into society.

Stefan Caspari, a judge and a member of the Deutscher Richterbund, an association of lawyers and judges, said that though there were occasional cases of relapses among released criminals, the solution could not lie in simply locking away people based on assessments by experts.

"We're talking here about young people who are still in a developing phase of their lives," Caspari said. He pointed out that much of the current preventive custody in Germany is already used for sex offenders widely considered difficult to treat.

Sex offender worked at a school

Both sides agree that the government also needs to close certain loopholes in the legal system if it is to lower the risk of repeat sex offenses.

News that Kolbig worked at a zoo in a school in the state of Saxony in 2001 and 2002 despite multiple convictions for child sexual abuse is a scandal, Ehrmann said.

He added that German data protection laws don't allow employers to check personal records of their employees for prior sex offense convictions for before hiring them for jobs involving working with children.

Another area in need of reform is the hiring of qualified psychologists to evaluate criminals before releasing them, Caspari said.

"We definitely need more well-trained experts who are both well-experienced in dealing with sex offenders as well as have the self-confidence and responsibility to make crucial decisions about criminals which may or may not always be right," he said. "We have to remember that these experts are human after all."

Ehrmann, however, pointed out how costly human errors could sometimes turn out.

"Last year an inexperienced 29-year-old psychologist spent just 45 minutes reviewing the case of Mario M, a convicted sex offender, and decided he didn't pose a danger," Ehrmann said. "Look where that led to."

The freed Mario M kidnapped a 13-year-old girl in the eastern city of Dresden, held her captive in his apartment for five weeks and repeatedly raped her before she was able to escape.

Sonia Phalnikar

Deutsche Welle 03/2007

2007-02-09T16:53:00.000+01:00

Lawyer: Suspects in Restaurant Murder Deny Involvement

Police have arrested two suspects in the Sittensen Chinese restaurant killings, but the investigation is far from over, with three of the victims still to be identified.

The two Vietnamese men arrested in connection with the killings of seven people in a Chinese restaurant in Germany deny playing any role in the shootings, one of the men's lawyer said Thursday.

The pair, aged 29 and 31, whose full identities have not been made public, were arrested on Monday, 12 hours after the shootings. The murders took place in the early hours of Monday in the Lin Yue restaurant in the small town of Sittensen, situated between Bremen and Hamburg.

The bodies of three men and three women were found in the restaurant in the early hours of Monday. Another man found at the scene died of serious gunshot wounds on Tuesday.

The two suspects were apprehended when the hire car they were driving was stopped for a "routine check" near the northern city of Bremen.

Bail application

"My client has told me that he has nothing to do with this thing and neither has his friend," said Wilfried Behrendt, the lawyer representing the 31-year-old man.

Police refused to comment on press reports that the 31-year-old was known to police and had previously been investigated for criminal assault and blackmail.

Behrendt acknowledged that he had represented his client for several years, but gave no further details. The lawyer has applied for his client's release and believed a colleague representing the other man would do the some. Both suspects have been remanded in custody by a magistrate in the town of Wildeshausen.

The older suspect has lived for several years in a new apartment block surrounded by gardens at Osterholz on the outskirts of the city of Bremen, according to neighbors. They said the young suspect had recently moved into the block after living in the nearby town of Ahlhorn. Police have searched all the premises and said they had seized documents, but have released no other details.

Many unanswered questions

The process of identifying the bodies was completed on Thursday, with the identity of the three remaining victims established.

The killings have shocked the small community, and challenged local police. They have said all lines of investigation remained open, adding that there is no history of Chinese mafia activity in the region.

DW staff with wire reports (emw)

Deutsche Welle 02/2007

2007-02-09T16:35:00.000+01:00

Intelligence Official: Chinese Snoop on German Companies

Germany's domestic intelligence service has warned the country's companies that China is increasingly using electronic espionage to get trade secrets.

"We have noticed increased activities by Chinese hackers of late," Elmar Remberg, the vice president of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper.

Other Western states have also reported an increase in industrial espionage by China, he added.

Experts say industrial espionage costs German companies billions of euros each year. Russia and China -- two of Germany's most important trading partners -- are the worst offenders, according to Remberg.

"Whereas the Russian services operate primarily in the classic form, with agents, the Chinese are mainly active in the electronic sector," he said.

Weak spots

One problem is the increasing use of Internet telephony by companies, Remberg said.

"This is where two dangers are coming together: communication per se and the Internet," Remberg said, adding that interns might also pose a problem.

Companies that develop or distribute high technology are especially prone to being spied on, according to the Consortium for Industry Safety (ASW). Smaller and medium-sized firms that develop highly specialized products are also targets, according to ASW's executive director, Berthold Stoppelkamp.

He said that smaller companies were also more vulnerable to spy attacks as the larger ones had already established security departments for the most part.

"Security is not only about having a guard at the door," Stoppelkamp said, adding that IT systems had to be protected and employees needed to receive training in how to behave when suspicious things happened.

Chinese groups not welcome?

Espionage and counterfeiting contribute to China's huge export success, according to the German Office for Foreign Trade (bfai), a government agency.

"An increasing number of German companies no longer want to host Chinese delegations, because the danger of lifting trade secrets is too high," said the bfai's China expert, Corinne Abele.

She added that no numbers on product piracy are available. While Chinese customs officials are meant to stop counterfeited products from leaving the country, they appear to only do random checks.

"We'll certainly have to deal with the problem for another couple of years," Abele said.

China to surpass Germany

China is expected to surpass Germany as the world's leading exporter next year. German officials announced Thursday that the country was the world's biggest exporter in 2006, with a record foreign trade surplus of 162 billion euros ($209 billion).

Exports climbed 13.7 percent from a year ago to 893.6 billion euros while imports rose 16.5 percent to 731.7 billion euros, officials for the federal statistics office said.

The 162-billion-euro surplus was around 2.5 percent more than the 2005 surplus of 158.2 billion euros.

Exports remained a driving force in the German economy, which grew at a faster than expected 2.5 percent in 2006 -- the best performance in six years.

DW staff (win)

Deutsche Welle 02/2007

2007-02-06T16:55:00.000+01:00

Study: Crime Down, But Europeans Still Feel Threatened

European citizens feel the crime rate has dropped in the last decade but about one person in three is still concerned about personal safety in the streets, according to a survey released Monday.

Fifteen percent of Europeans questioned said they had been the victim of a common crime -- including 10 categories of crime ranging from bicycle theft to burglary -- in 2004, compared to 19 percent in 2000 and 21 percent in 1995.

But the crime, safety and security survey, which studied people's perceptions about crime, found that about 30 percent of citizens in 18 EU countries were afraid of burglary and do not feel safe on the streets.

The poll, coordinated by Gallup Europe, showed that Britons considered they lived in a "high crime country," second only to Ireland, while Germany suffered more sex crimes.

According to the results, provided during an interview by 2,000 people in each country, Britain has the highest level of assaults and burglaries -- 5 percent and 3 percent of all crimes

respectively -- in the EU countries.

Sex crimes in Germany above EU average

Sexual crimes in Germany were 60 percent above the EU average, according to the poll, which the authors said had no correlation to crime statistics compiled by police in the countries concerned.

France had the highest number of "hate crimes" in the EU -- 5 percent compared to an 18-country average of 3 percent -- respondents there said.

The study revealed cultural differences about what crime means. People in Scandinavian countries, for example, have a wider definition of what constitutes a sexual crime and are more likely to go to the police than citizens in Mediterranean rim countries, it found.

Six dead in bloodbath in Germany

Meanwhile, six people were found shot dead in a Chinese restaurant in northern Germany in the early hours of Monday, but a two-year-old girl survived, police said. The victims were three men and three women, all believed to be of Asian origin.

They had been tied up and their bodies were found in different rooms of the Lin Yue restaurant in Sittensen, a town of 10,000 inhabitants near the northern port of Hamburg. The owners of the restaurant and staff members were among the dead.

Police spokesman Thomas Teuber said another member of the restaurant staff suffered serious gunshot wounds and was being treated in hospital. The bodies were found by a 47-year-old man who came to fetch his wife from the restaurant shortly after midnight. She was among the dead.

The motive for the killings was unclear, police said. There was no evidence that the restaurant had been the target of blackmail and there was no history of Chinese mafia activity in Lower Saxony, the state where it is situated. Organized crime linked to Chinese groups "has never been an issue in Lower Saxony", said a spokesman for the regional police. The state has asked federal investigators to work on the case.

DW staff / AFP (win)

Deutsche Welle 02/2007

2007-02-05T18:22:00.000+01:00

German Supreme Court Deems Police Hacking Illegal

Germany's supreme court determined Monday that police may not secretly hack into suspects' computers. Some are celebrating the decision as a civil rights victory, but the ruling may not be the last word on the matter.

No legal framework for secret police hacking exists at this time, decided Germany's Federal Court of Justice Monday in Karlsruhe, since searching computer and Internet data on a suspect's computer without their knowledge cannot be compared to existing methods of police investigation.

The court ruling stated that home searches differed from computer searches because they were always conducted in the presence of the suspect, or at least a witness. Telephone taps could also not be compared with computer hacking, continued the report, because previously saved data files fundamentally differ from live telecommunication.

New legal framework may be created

The public prosecutor's office welcomed the decision from Karlsruhe as it "established clarity on the scope of the existing investigation process concerning Online evidence, which is so important to the investigation," according to a statement cited by German news agency dpa.

Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had been supportive of allowing police to conduct secret searches of computer hard drives and Internet records.

According to reports, it is likely that Schäuble will now press for changes to the legal framework of the criminal investigation procedure that would allow for police hacking, which advocates see as particularly helpful in locating and prosecuting terrorists.

Support from the left

Jan Korte from the Left Party immediately praised the court decision as a "godsend for civil rights." He also criticized Schäuble, saying the interior minister should not "keep thinking up new methods of spying and then figure out the legal situation after the fact."

Police hacking has been practiced in the past at the state level, often to scan the Emails of individual suspects and criminal groups. A court order was required in these cases and the computers could only be searched while they were running.

A supreme court judge affirmed the legality of secret police hacking in February 2006. When this judgment was overturned in November, Attorney General Monika Harms appealed. Monday's decision rejected Harms' appeal and upheld the November decision.

DW staff (kjb)

Deutsche Welle 02/2007

2007-01-28T11:41:00.000+01:00

EU, US Move Closer to Permanent Deal of Passenger Data

German interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble and US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff met in Berlin Friday. An extension of the passenger data exchange deal between the EU and the US seems likely.

During a visit to Berlin on Friday, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and his host, German interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble, discussed the impact of a deal struck between the US and the European last year which gives American law enforcement agencies easier access to air passenger data.

The agreement applies only until July 2007 and a long-term accord will have to be hammered out soon. The two men also debated the need to harmonize data protection standards. European fears of insufficient US standard had been high in the run-up to the signing of the agreement on the delivery of passenger data by European airlines.

Schäuble said his talks with Chertoff centered on ways of intensifying the exchange of security-relevant data between Germany and the United States. He called that a top priority in the fight against organized crime and international terrorism.

Schäuble and Chertoff were agreed that present-day threats made it necessary to focus even more on crime prevention. The US Homeland security chief had just come from the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, where he also talked about the security dangers of the 21st century.

US chief praises efforts so far

Chertoff spoke about the potential ability of even a single individual or small group to use technology with the sort of destruction that would have been unthinkable a century ago. He said in Berlin that "you can’t put that genie back in the bottle once a nuclear bomb or another weapon of mass destruction gets into the hands of a terrorist."

Chertoff praised the usefulness of the data deal between the United States and the European Union struck in October of last year. It allows US security agencies to get hold of and analyze data of European air passengers headed for the US.

Airlines have to make available passengers’ addresses, telephone numbers, credit card details, e-mails and other information to help identify suspicious travelers at the earliest possible stage. Information that may point to passengers’ religious denominations must not be passed on in line with European data protection and anti-discrimination standards.

Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency, has the responsibility to extend the current deal past July of this year and turn that the agreement into a longer-term accord, Schäuble said.

Schäuble predicts greater security

"Of course, the European Union has in interest in reaching a long-term agreement," he said. "The Americans hope that such an accord can be coupled with an even more efficient use of the data made available. This is something that we can live with. We do not need more data input, but a more efficient analysis of what’s available already. Citizens should have no objections to that, because everyone should have an interest in enjoying greater security during passenger flights."

Both Germany and the United States agree that data protection standards must not be sacrificed in the fight against cross-border terrorism. There are however different views on just how strict relevant regulations should be.

A German-US working group is to look into ways of harmonizing national data protection laws.

Hardy Graupner (nda)

Deutsche Welle 01/2007

2007-01-26T15:24:00.000+01:00

Hartz Sentenced, Fined in VW Sex-and-Bribery Trial

A former senior Volkswagen manager got a suspended two-year sentence and a fine for his part in a sex-and-bribery scandal that rocked Europe's biggest carmaker.

Peter Hartz, 65, was sentenced on Thursday followed his confession earlier this month to sanctioning illegal payments in a scandal that first emerged about 18 months ago. The illegal payments were aimed at winning union support for company decisions.

In addition to the suspended sentence, the former VW manager was fined 576,000 euros ($747,000).

Hartz is known as the architect of tough labor-market reforms introduced by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrat-led government; his name is still attached to the reforms, which were partly aimed at forcing Germany's long-term unemployed to seek work.

Bribing suppliers

Hartz had expressed regret for his actions in the bribery-and-sex scandal, and has accepted "criminal responsibility" for them, his lawyer told the court at the trial in the north German city of Braunschweig.

The scandal surfaced in June, 2005. It originally centered on allegations of bribes from potential suppliers, and the creation of dummy companies that were used to secure lucrative contracts abroad.

But it quickly widened to include claims about flying around high-class prostitutes, visits to brothels, and sex parties financed with company funds.

Ties to unions

Altogether, Hartz faced 44 counts of breach of trust. He was the first person to stand trial in the case, which helped to turn the spotlight on the often cozy relations between unions and employers in corporate Germany's consensus-style management system.

Hartz admitted being the initiator of abuse that saw nearly 2 million euros in illegal bonuses paid to the then-head of the company's works council, Klaus Volkert.

The payments, made when he was director of Volkswagen's personnel department, were allegedly used to finance lavish foreign trips by Volkert and his Brazilian mistress, Adriana Barros.

Hartz left the company in July 2005. He said he ordered preferential treatment be given to Volkert because of the important role he played in the company. Under German law, works council leaders need to be consulted on major decisions taken by leading German companies.

DW staff (jen)

Deutsche Welle 01/2007

2007-01-26T15:12:00.000+01:00

Germany Boosts Research in Fight Against Terror

Germany plans to fund a multifaceted program for civil security research, to better position the country in the booming security-technology market.

Germany plans to earmark 123 million euros ($160 million) in the next four years for training and research in civil security.

Currently, Germany is one of the most secure countries in the world, Research Minister Annette Schavan noted. Further development of security technology aims to help it stay that way.

"We want to tap into the market for security technology and services," she said on Wednesday. "We want to promote the competitiveness of German companies, and we aim to become leaders in some specific security technologies.

Fast-growing market

The world security-technology market is growing at a rate of around 7 percent a year, and German companies are well positioned for the market, Schavan said. In Germany alone, sales reach some 10 billion euros per year.

In agreeing to earmark the R&D funds on Wednesday, the cabinet signaled its aim to improve networking between business, research and security agencies.

For example, the money could go toward helping various disciplines within the security field put their technologies together into a single product, therefore getting a boost in the world market, Schavan said.

Another aspect of the program is to help protect transportation and energy providers from terror attacks. And of course, the plan hopes to make civil security more effective for individual German citizens.

Benefits of technology

"Dogs cannot be trained to detect all dangerous materials," Schavan said. "They can't detect them from a distance, and they can't get around in subway shafts, for example. We want to develop electronic 'noses' that will be able to detect poisons, explosives, biological weapons and nuclear agents."

Because the term "security" covers a broad range of issues, including terrorism, criminality, and natural catastrophe, various ministries will be invited to bid on the funds, Schavan said. Bidding processes will begin in March.

Nina Werkhauser (jen)

Deutsche Welle 01/2007

2007-01-19T16:52:00.000+01:00

RAF Terrorists Bid for Freedom as Sentences Near Completion

Germany is considering the release of two of the principal leftist terrorists who mounted a campaign of kidnapping and assassination 30 years ago and created one of Germany's worst political crises of the 1970s.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt and Christian Klar are both serving life terms but qualify this year to apply for parole for good behavior.

Neither has explicitly renounced a belief in violent revolution, but supporters say the 57-year-old woman and 54-year-old man will not go back underground to fight the state, but instead seek personal fulfillment after spending half their lives in custody.

Death has already claimed the founders of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a group of students and intellectuals who planned to engineer a communist uprising by the West German working class.

The bizarre theory was that by assassinating senior business and justice officials, they could provoke the government into establishing a police state, which would make communism seem a desirable alternative to the masses. But they had no popular support.

West Germany preserved democracy and gradually caught most of the middle-class terrorists. Leaders Ulrike Meinhof, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin committed suicide in jail in 1976 and 1977.

Longest interred RAF members seek freedom

Mohnhaupt and Klar have served longer terms in custody than any other former RAF terrorists and are among only four still serving out jail terms. The rest have been gradually paroled and are living out unremarkable lives in German cities.

A panel of state superior court judges is set to give Mohnhaupt a hearing on Jan. 22 to consider if she should be granted parole from her five life terms and 15-year term, all concurrent, when she reaches the point on March 26 of having served 24 years.

She has already made nine excursions from prison, with armed police watching her, to prepare her for a changed world that is connected by the Internet and only dimly remembers communism.

As part of the RAF "second generation" after the founders' suicides, she led a particularly nasty 1977 Red Army Faction kidnap in which Hanns Martin Schleyer, head of the West German employers' federation, was seized from his car, and found dead 44 days later.

Schleyer's widow, Waltrude, called this week for the terrorists to be kept in jail, pointing out they had never shown contrition. In 1993, Mohnhaupt sent a statement from jail opposing an RAF surrender.

Prison officials say Mohnhaupt has been well-behaved in the prison in Bavaria where she is serving time, with no sign of any new plots.

Klar's plea likely to go unheard

According to the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung this week, Klar has applied to German President Horst Köhler for clemency, as he would not qualify for another two years to apply for parole. He must serve a minimum 26 years. The paper said there were signs were that clemency might be granted.

Klar, who like Mohnhaupt came from a well-off family and went to university to study philosophy before diverting into terrorism, is reported to have been well behaved in jail. A Berlin theater has promised him a two-year staff internship if he is released.

He has also never renounced his ideas, telling an interviewer in 2001 he still wanted Germany to make a "fresh start" and would never abjure what the RAF had done, "though I do not contemplate reviving the armed struggle."

DW staff /dpa (nda)

Deutsche Welle 01/2007

2007-01-19T16:45:00.000+01:00

Former VW Executive Confesses in Corruption Trial

Peter Hartz, whose name is also connected with Germany's welfare reform, admitted breach of trust as his trial opened on Wednesday. He could now get off with a fine and a suspended sentence.

Once one of the country's most respected managers, Hartz, 65, was accused of sanctioning illegal bonuses while director of Volkswagen's human resources department. The payments were allegedly used to finance lavish foreign trips, mainly by the head of the company's works council, Klaus Volkert, and his South American mistress. Other charges relate to visits to brothels and sex parties financed with company funds.

Hartz, who played a key role in drafting Germany's labor and social welfare reforms under
former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, left the company in July 2005. He admitted in October to "a criminal responsibility for giving preferential treatment to the former works council head."

Sources close to the case said that no witnesses were expected to be called during the two-day trial in Braunschweig, close to the town of Wolfsburg, where Volkswagen has its headquarters.

Hartz is said to have cooperated extensively with prosecutors.

Paid pleasure trips

The VW scandal, which surfaced in June 2005, originally centered on allegations of bribes from potential suppliers and the creation of dummy companies which were used to secure lucrative contracts abroad. But it quickly widened to include claims that VW paid for so-called pleasure trips for work council members to win their allegiance. This included allegations about flying around high-class prostitutes.

The charges against Hartz came after an 18-month investigation, which has also seen the indictment of Hans-Juergen Uhl, a former member of the works council, who is also a member of parliament in Berlin.

Uhl, who represents the co-governing Social Democratic Party (SPD), has been indicted on two counts of being an accessory to fraud and five counts of making false statements under oath.

Volkert was arrested last year because of concerns about the suppression of evidence, but released after two months.

The former works council chief is alleged to have been paid illegal bonuses worth 1.9 million euros ($2.5 million) by Hartz between 1994 and 2005. His mistress is alleged to have received payments totalling 400,000 euros.

DW staff / DPA (win)

Deutsche Welle 01/2007

2006-12-23T14:11:00.000+01:00

Germany Considers Tighter CEO Laws

The Siemens bribery scandal has caused the German government to consider forbidding retired CEOs from moving over to head their companies' supervisory boards, according to a report released this week.

In an effort to prevent the abuse of power among top chief executive officers, the German government has proposed putting limits on what they can do after retirement. In Germany, departing CEOs often take over leadership of their companies' supervisory boards.

Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD) have already reached an agreement on the supervisory board issue, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper.

A management board member should not hold a seat on his company's own supervisory board for five years after his contract as CEO has expired, Michael Fuchs, the economics affairs spokesman for the CDU told Handelsblatt.

Siemens scandal causes changes

For CEOs of German blue-chip companies listed on the elite DAX 30 index, heading up the supervisory board after retirement remains a common practice, despite possible conflicts of interest. Yet the ongoing Siemens scandal has caused the German government to look for ways to tighten up corporate governance laws.

Siemens has become a prime example of the cozy relationship between CEOs and their supervisory boards. Heinrich von Pierer, the former CEO of the German engineering company Siemens, moved directly to the company's supervisory board when he retired as CEO in January, 2005.

Siemens is under investigation for the possible embezzlement of 200 million euros ($260 million) that was allegedly transferred to overseas funds and used as bribe money. So far, von Pierer has not been directly implicated in the bribery scandal, but the investigation could stretch back to when he was CEO.

DW staff / AFP (th)

Deutsche Welle 12/2006

2006-12-23T14:06:00.000+01:00

Siemens Corruption Scandal Deepens

Although Munich State prosecutors have freed a group of men accused of running slush funds at the engineering giant Siemens, they announced on Friday that the case was growing in strength.

At a press conference in Munich on Friday, prosecutors said the last of the five men in custody had now been conditionally released.

The weight of evidence against them had grown thanks to the "comprehensive testimony" obtained during their detention, said prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld.

He added that the investigation was proceeding, and the suspects as well as Siemens were cooperating in the ongoing probe.

About a dozen former Siemens executives are expected to face breach of trust charges for the misappropriation of funds involving more than 200 million euros ($264 million).

The cash was allegedly deposited in hidden accounts and used as bribes in return for receiving lucrative contracts for the Munich-based electronics and engineering firm.

Bribery investigation widens

Friday's online edition of the weekly Stern magazine reports that prosecutors in Wuppertal, a city in Germany's west, are also investigating Siemens on suspicion of bribery.

The prosecutors suspect a contract obtained by Siemens to construct a electricity generating plant in Serbia worth nearly 50 million euros was obtained by bribing a European Union project official.

The kickbacks allegedly took the form of money and a "gift" of a luxury car. Both Siemens and the EU official involved have denied the charges. Stern said the plant suppliers, Siemens Power Generation and the engineering firm Lurgi Lentjes, as well as the project official denied the allegations.

Siemens launches own probe

Meanwhile, an American anti-corruption expert hired by Siemens has arrived in Munich to launch an internal investigation.

Michael Hershman, president of a private intelligence and security company, stressed his independence at a press conference held on Wednesday.

"I am not here to represent Siemens," Hershman said. "I am also not here to defend Siemens, or apologize for them. I am completely independent."

Hershman, who was one of the co-founders of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, said he was sure that "all of the people involved in the scandal will be identified." Siemens had earlier announced it would investigate suspect payments of over 420 million euros.

DW staff (kh)

Deutsche Welle 12/2006

2006-12-05T12:52:00.000+01:00

German Court Considers Investigation Into Student Death

Jeremiah Duggan was a young British student who met a mysterious death in Germany in 2003. The Constitutional Court is currently considering whether to order a new investigation into what happened.

In the early hours of March 27, 2003, the body of a young man was found on the B455 freeway outside Wiesbaden. After questioning motorists, local police concluded Jeremiah Duggan had committed suicide by running into traffic, and the case was closed.

But in the last three and a half years, Jeremiah's mother has amassed evidence which she says proves her son did not take his own life -- and also suggests that the perfunctory police investigation was badly flawed. Even so, despite the fact that the coroner at the British inquest in November 2003 said there was nothing in the German police evidence to suggest Jeremiah's death could be suicide, German courts have refused to reopen the case.

"The police investigation was incomplete," argues Erica Duggan's lawyer Hans-Eberhard Schultz. "No autopsy was performed on the body, and no witness statements were taken from the drivers of the cars. At the very least, these people need to be questioned again thoroughly."

Erica Duggan is haunted by questions no one seems willing to help her answer. "Why doesn't Germany want to investigate the full circumstances of his death?" she asks.

A search for clues

One report she commissioned from former Scotland Yard forensics expert Paul Canning earlier this year suggests that nothing less than a cover-up may have taken place.

According to his findings, the tracks on the road did not match the police version of how the accident happened, and there were no signs of glass, tire marks or crushing of the body to prove it had been run over.

After examining photographs of the scene of the accident taken by German police, Canning concluded: "I do not believe that the images depict how Jerry came to meet his premature death. It is possible that Jerry lost his life elsewhere, prior to being placed at this scene."

In November, Erica Duggan filed the case with the German Constitutional Court. "I lost my son, but unless the Constitutional Court supports my rights, I have the added trauma of having lost justice," she says.

With her fresh information all pointing to an unsolved mystery, it is now up to the court in Karlsruhe to decide the next move.

"Who knows why the investigation was so inadequate, but it was, and it's high time it was reopened," says Schultz.

The facts

Jeremiah was a 22-year-old British student who had been studying in Paris. In early 2003, he fell in with a group of young people who sold Nouvelle Solidarité, a newspaper published by controversial US millionaire and political campaigner Lyndon LaRouche.

The group invited Jeremiah to Wiesbaden to attend a conference organized by the LaRouche Youth Movement and the related Schiller Institute run by LaRouche's German wife Helga Zepp, which has been described by Britain's Metropolitan Police as "a political cult with sinister and dangerous connections."

But Jeremiah knew nothing of this. Believing he would be attending a seminar critical of the imminent war against Iraq, he left for Wiesbaden on March 21.

On March 27 he rang his mother in London in the middle of the night sounding terrified. "I am in terrible trouble...I'm frightened," he managed to say before being cut off. Minutes later, he was dead. To the German police, the call indicated he was suicidal. To his mother, it sounded as though he feared for his life.

LaRouche and BüSo woo idealistic youths

According to Pastor Thomas Gandow, Sect Commissioner of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, Jeremiah's involvement with the Schiller Institute might well have taken a sinister turn, especially after he revealed he was Jewish.

Lyndon LaRouche's group and its political German wing, BüSo (Civil Rights Movement Solidarity), have long been accused of propagating a virulent brand of anti-Semitism.

Lecture notes found in Jeremiah's bag after his death apparently pointed to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to explain the background to the Iraq war and other global problems.

"We know very little about this institute," says Gandow. "It appears to operate as an intelligence service as well as a youth religion. Opposing the Iraq war is one of the ways it recruits idealistic young people.

"Despite being known to operate like a cult, for some reason it is not monitored by the government – even though other sects such as Scientology are," he points out. "Basically, the fact that the Institute has not been investigated is a scandal."

Anti-Semitism

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is equally alarmed by the LaRouche Youth Movement and the Schiller Institute.

Last month, its director for international relations Shimon Samuels wrote to German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries urging her to "reopen the public investigation of this case at the highest Federal level, to hold an inquiry as to whether Jeremiah Duggan's Jewish identity played any role in his death, and to impose the full application of German law to the supervision of the LaRouche Youth Movement and its network of affiliates."

In 2004, a former member of the Schiller Institute told the BBC that "people tend to be drawn into it who did not want to be drawn into it -- who did not want to join a cult or sect." She added that conferences entailed immense psychological duress.

"I was freaked out and I experienced that other people were freaked out. I saw people who went out of their mind," she said.

Jeremiah might have experienced similar pressure.

"Perhaps these people exerted such psychological pressure on Jeremiah that he panicked," says sect commissioner Gandow. "Perhaps they wanted to make an example of him. Who knows?"

Standard practice

Even though Jeremiah's passport was found to have been in the possession of the Schiller Institute when he died, police failed to question any of its staff.

Hartmut Ferse, press spokesperson for the Public Prosecutors' Office in Wiesbaden, still insists there was nothing amiss with the way the case was handled.

Then as now, police insisted the activities of the Schiller Institute played "no role" in the investigation. "This was a cut and dried suicide," said Ferse. "It is not our job to explore the motives for why someone should take their own life."

"There was simply no evidence of any third party involvement which would have necessitated further investigation. Clearly, no one pushed this young man onto the road."

He argues that it is standard practice not to take formal witness statements in a case in which the facts are unequivocal. "The drivers were questioned and let go, because there was nothing unusual in their statements," he insists.

Lyndon LaRouche, meanwhile, has dismissed the case as a "hoax" masterminded by his sworn enemy Dick Cheney.

"London sources tied intimately to Dick Cheney have once again launched a press campaign on behalf of a repeatedly discredited hoax," he wrote recently in his newspaper The Executive Intelligence Review. "This concerns the causes and circumstances of the suicide by a young, emotionally troubled British national, Jeremy Duggan, who, as the official forensic evidence showed beyond doubt, threw himself repeatedly against moving automobiles on a highway near Wiesbaden."

Jane Paulick

Deutsche Welle 12/2006

2006-11-20T17:26:00.000+01:00

Terrorists Planned Plane Bombing in Germany

German prosecutors have launched an investigation into a group that is thought to have started planning a terrorist attack on a German passenger plane last summer.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said in a statement that suspects had already convinced an airport employee with security access to smuggle a suitcase full of explosives onto a passenger plane.

Prosecutors have questioned six suspects about the bomb plot.

"With the exception of one suspect who is in prison for another offence, the other suspects were released on Saturday," the statement said.

Police also searched nine houses in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse over the weekend.

Suspected of belonging to terrorist organization

According to the prosecutor's office, the suspects had made contact several times with members of an unknown group without coming to an agreement on the size of the fee for smuggling the suitcase.

The prosecutor's office gave no details about the nationality of the suspects, nor would they reveal the planned timing of the attack.

In summer, Germany hosted the soccer World Cup, during which police were on high alert because of fears of terrorist attacks.

The German government on Monday said it would not increase its security warning in light of the new investigation.

"We always have to count on there being groups of people who are considering real plans," an interior ministry spokesperson said in Berlin.

DW staff (kh)

Deutsche Welle 11/2006

2006-11-20T17:01:00.000+01:00

Former Student Shoots Himself After Storming High School

A scare at a northwestern German high school came ended Monday morning when the masked teen apparently shot himself.

The 18-year-old former student opened fire at the high school he attended in the town of Emsdetten, Germany on Monday, wounding at least nine people before apparently killing himself.

A school staff member and at least two students were in serious condition, said Ingo Wolf, interior minister of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, where the shooting occurred.

The victims reportedly suffered from gunshot wounds, though the police would not comment on the exact nature of their injuries.

During the standoff, most pupils at the school ran to safety in a neighboring building and field, while others were evacuated after police had taken control of the situation.

"All the children are safe," the spokesman told the AFP news agency.

Police had to delay an inspection of the gunman's body because it appeared to be laden with explosives, officials said.

The gunman left a message on the Internet that suggested the attack was retaliation for being mocked at the school in the town near the Dutch border.

Several students were grazed by bullets, but it remained unclear if the man had taken any hostages during the two-hour incident, which began when the gunman fired his pistol in the school at about 9:30 a.m. CET and later set off smoke bombs.

Website indicated gunman's despair

Police said Web pages containing photos of the teenager holding weapons that appeared to be his own, including a submachine gun.

Criticizing his former high school, the Geschwister Scholl School (GSS), the youth wrote, "The only thing I was properly taught at GSS was that I'm a loser."

The message also contained the words, "I hate people," and ended with the words, "I'm outta here."

Teachers in Emsdetten said the attacker had been a loner who often dressed completely in black and wore a long, black trench coat.

A prosecutor in the nearby city of Münster said the youth appeared to have shot himself, but how he died could only be proved by an autopsy. Police said they had not shot him.

A teacher told the TV broadcaster WDR the attacker was not a dropout but had graduated from the Geschwister Scholl School.

DW staff / DPA (kjb)

Deutsche Welle 11/2006

2006-11-20T16:56:00.000+01:00

Siemens Under Fire in Corruption Scandal

A dozen former and current Siemens employees are being investigated for using bribes and embezzling millions in order to win company contracts.

A massive corruption scandal at the fixed line telecoms unit of the Munich-based engineering and electronics giant Siemens could involve more than 100 million euros ($128 million), according to reports in German weekly Focus magazine over the weekend.

The magazine said in its online edition that investigators had found 40 million euros in the bank account of a Siemens executive in Greece and another 40 million euros in Austria. Even the offices of Siemens chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld have been searched, according to newspaper reports.

Slush fund to bribe contractors

Prosecutors are investigating whether the money was part of a slush fund used to bribe overseas contractors to place orders, including a contract for security systems at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

A former Siemens board member and four other employees were taken into custody following police raids of company headquarters, more than 30 other offices, and in private homes on Wednesday.

The five are among a dozen people suspected of embezzling 20 million euros, according to senior prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld. According to reports in Spiegel Online, two top executives, Michael Kutschenreuter and Andy Mattes, who were board members at Siemens COM, the fixed-line communications division, are among those being investigated.

Raid involved hundreds of inspectors

The raids involved about 270 tax inspectors, police officers and investigating magistrates who searched sites and seized documents at company headquarters as well as in the German city of Erlangen and offices in Switzerland.

The dozen suspects are being investigated for using company money to pay bribes in order to win contracts, channeling cash mainly through Swiss bank accounts, and transferring the embezzled funds to offshore firms via dummy companies.

The German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Monday that a Siemens spokesperson confirmed the company had known about the accusations for almost a year and had launched its own probe into the corruption scandal.

Siemens appointing ombudsman

On Thursday, Siemens said that it was revising its internal auditing procedures as a result of the affair and was also creating the position of a full-time ombudsman to whom its employees could report any suspected irregularities in the future.

The investigation adds to a difficult period for Siemen, which has been under fire for its perceived role in the collapse of German mobile phone maker BenQ, and is the latest in a series of corruption scandals that have plagued major German businesses recently.

Former Volkswagen board member Peter Hartz, who advised former chancellor Gerhard Schröder over the labor reform package that bears his name, was indicted just last week for sanctioning illegal bonuses paid out to his mistress and former heads of VW's workers' council.

DW staff/dpa/AFP (df)

Deutsche Welle 11/2006

2006-11-18T12:32:00.001+01:00

Police Raid Siemens Offices in Munich in Fraud Swoop

Police and prosecutors have raided the offices of German technology giant Siemens looking into allegations of fraud worth millions.

Andreas Schwab, a spokesman for the Munich-based company, said Siemens was helping authorities in their probe and former employees were under investigation for violating the company's business conduct guidelines.

Neither Schwab nor the police have given any details as to which guidelines have been violated while rumors circulate that the investigation centers on alleged payments made to secure contracts.

"Certain Siemens employees have engaged in fraud," Schwab said. "We are cooperating fully with the investigation."

Police investigate allegations of bungs for contracts

Siemens said in a statement that the company had a "high interest" in clearing up the affair, which it said involved members of its landline telecommunications unit. Siemens said that six former and still active employees of the company were under investigation.

It's not immediately known if employees being investigated included any executives and neither Schwab nor Siemens elaborated. But state prosecutor Anton Winkler said a total of some 30 offices and private homes had been searched in Munich, and other cities.

Some 200 police officers, tax inspectors and prosecutors were involved in the raids. "No arrests have been made as of yet," said Anton Winkler on Wednesday afternoon.

DW staff (sj)

Deutsche Welle 10/2006

2006-10-30T08:52:00.000+01:00

Deutsche Bank Chief Faces Retrial in Mannesmann Case

Germany's most powerful banker is due back in court on Thursday in the latest round of the country's biggest ever corporate crime trial.

Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann, 58, is one of six defendants facing a retrial in an executive bonus affair arising from the 2000 takeover of German telecoms group Mannesmann by Britain's Vodafone.

The six were acquitted by a Düsseldorf court in July 2004 of a breach of fiduciary trust arising from 57 million euros ($72 million dollars) in bonuses paid to departing Mannesmann executives.

But last December, the country's Federal Court of Justice ruled that the head of Germany's biggest bank and five other former Mannesmann directors should stand trial again.

The payments, which included 15 million euros for Mannesmann former chief Klaus Esser, followed Mannesmann's hostile 180 billion euros takeover by the British mobile telephony giant.

Verdict overturned

In its 2004 ruling the Düsseldorf court found that Ackermann and his co-defendants, including Esser and retired trade union leader Klaus Zwickel, did not act unlawfully in paying the high bonuses. But in its December ruling, the Karlsruhe-based Federal Court of Justice overturned the verdict and said Ackermann had failed to protect Mannesmann shareholders.

The federal court said the defendants should not have awarded the extra bonus payments because the men who received them were carrying out tasks in line with their normal duties.

The bonus case triggered a major debate in Germany about executive compensation and corporate greed with big payouts and salaries for top executives having been relatively unknown in the nation, unlike many Anglo-Saxon countries.

An embarrassment for Deutsche Bank

Ackermann, who was a non-executive Mannesmann board member when the bonuses were agreed to, did not receive any payout and denies any wrongdoing. The case also involves Mannesmann's former supervisory chairman Joachim Funk, who received a 3-million-euro payout.

The new trial, which is taking place in the same Düsseldorf court where the original one was held, is expected to last until March 2007. It has raised questions about Ackermann's ability to lead Deutsche Bank.

In the wake of the Karlsruhe court decision, two of Germany's leading investor groups called on Ackermann to stand aside, underscoring analysts' concerns that the retrial could be deeply

embarrassing for the bank.

"So long the chief executive stays, the Mannesmann case will be a Deutsche Bank case," said Reinhild Keitel a spokesman for Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanläer (SdK).

Chief of controversy

Analysts had initially feared that if Ackermann decided to stay on in his post while the new trial was underway it could open up a power vacuum at the Frankfurt-based bank.

The banker, who was forced to spend long hours in court during the previous sixth-month trial, has said he will continue to carry out his duties but indicated he could leave in the event of a guilty verdict.

"Those who know me also know that I don't want money, if there is no performance," Ackermann said. "Naturally, I sent a letter to the governing body saying that should I step down on account of the Mannesmann case, I shall receive not a single cent."

There is, however, no fear of Ackermann going poor. In 2004 alone, the Swiss bank manager made 10.1 million euros. And while Ackermann is credited with boosting the bank's earnings and stepping up the disposal of Deutsche's long-held stakes in other companies, the bank has also been hit by controversy. His policy of closing less-profitable operations and building successful trading and investment banking franchises proved deeply unpopular domestically.

Plans for succession

Deutsche Bank had already began a succession plan drawn up by its chairman and Ackermann supporter Clemens Börsig. Frontrunner for the top job is said to be Anshu Jain, co-head of the bank's the London-based investment operations.

Other internal candidates in contention are Rainer Neske, head of the retail bank, and Jain's London associate Michael Cohrs. Compounding Deutsche Bank's woes is the prospect of another lengthy legal procedure, this time involving former media czar Leo Kirch, who blames the bank for the collapse of his empire in 2002.

Last week, Kirch filed legal papers accusing Ackermann of breaching his fiduciary duties when he appointed Börsig chairman and awarded him compensation for leaving his former job as the bank's chief financial officer.

dw staff / DPA (tt)

Deutsche Welle 10/2006

2006-10-06T11:37:00.000+02:00

Study: Switzerland Tops in Preventing Bribery

Transparency International released a study on Wednesday showing that Switzerland is the most effective among the world's leading exporting nations in preventing its firms from bribing. India came in last in the study.

The corruption watchdog organization Transparency International's "Bribe Payers Index 2006" showed that companies in Turkey have one of the world's worst reputations for paying bribes abroad, while firms in France and Italy are notorious for the practice in Africa.

In the 2006 index ranking, Transparency International (TI) placed Turkey as the fourth worst in the perceived tendency of companies in the world's 30 leading export nations to pay foreign bribes. Turkey came just ahead of Russia, China and India in the index.

"This is a crucial result as the country pursues its bid for European Union membership," TI said in a statement in Brussels.

"The poor score also raises troubling questions about the commitment to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) anti-bribery convention, which entered into force there in 2003," the statement said.

Turkey began membership talks with the EU a year ago but was told that the process would take at least a decade to complete, with no guarantees at the end that it would actually be allowed into the European club.

"Of Turkey's peers in Europe, France and Italy -- both large exporters -- scored poorly," TI said. "Isolating answers from African respondents places Italy and France in the bottom six countries overall."

Good marks

The Bribery Payers Index (BPI) was compiled based on the responses of some 11,000 business people in 125 countries to a World Economic Forum survey this year.

The country thought least likely to offer bribes abroad was Switzerland, followed by Sweden, Australia, Austria, Canada and Britain. The United States was not far behind in ninth place, tying with Belgium.

Germany fared relatively well in the survey, coming in seventh place -- despite the controversy surrounding German-American motor company DaimlerChrysler's recent admission to paying bribes in Africa, Asia and eastern Europe.

"We saw that Germany fared pretty well given the fact that it has three times as many opportunities to bribe," Hans-Jörg Elshorst, head of TI's German branch, told DW-RADIO. "It is the world champion of exports, but thankfully, is not a champion of corruption."

Rating is relative

However, no country was able to completely prevent its companies from making improper payments. Elshorst said that there was very little that actually separates the best performers from the worst on the index.

"There are different levels, but even the first and the last -- Switzerland and India -- are pretty close together," he said. "The difference is just three points of 10 possible points."

On a scale from 10, for no corruption, down to 1, for vast corruption, Switzerland scored 7.81 while India scored 4.62.

Profiteering from development money

To cut down on the bribery practice, TI recommended that wealthy OECD countries step up enforcement of the organization's anti-bribery convention. It urged development banks to debar companies found guilty of bribery abroad. The organization also encouraged China, India and Russia to sign on to the convention voluntarily.

"It is hypocritical that OECD-based companies continue to bribe across the globe, while their governments pay lip service to enforcing the law," said TI's chief executive, David Nussbaum.

Foreign companies that commit the crime of bribery were undercutting Africa's anti-poverty efforts, according to Casey Kelso, TI's regional director for Africa. He pointed to crooked companies that profiteered from development money and called on African governments to prosecute them vigorously.

"Progress made"

Despite these warnings, Elshorst was upbeat about progress that has been made in fighting corruption.

"When you look back 10 or 15 years ago, bribery was widely accepted, even in our country," he said. "You had the privilege of deducting your bribes from your taxes."

Elshorst said that people used to see that as an official endorsement of bribery by the state.

"That's now over," he said. "Companies try really hard to avoid it or at least to conceal it, and trying to conceal it is difficult."

DW staff (als)

Deutsche Welle 10/2006

2006-10-05T10:04:00.000+02:00

Hijacker Reportedly Faced Arrest in Turkey for Desertion

A Turkish hijacker seeking to communicate with Pope Benedict seized an airliner flying from Albania to Istanbul on Tuesday and diverted it to Italy before surrendering.

The drama ended swiftly after the unarmed Turkish hijacker gave himself up to Italian police and asked for asylum within hours of seizing the plane and forcing it to land in southern Italy on Tuesday.

The Boeing 737-400 had 107 passengers and six crew members on board.

All but the hijacker and a traveler who opted to stay in Italy were flown to Istanbul. The passangers, most of them Albanians, were greeted by senior THY managers at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul.

The 28-year-old Turkish man identified as Hakan Ekinci, was originally facing arrest upon his arrival in Turkey. Ekinci was reportedly a Turkish convert to Christianity and a conscientious objector to military service.

Ekinci deserted in May while on a one-day furlough from his Istanbul garrison and fled to Albania, where he made an unsuccessful bid for political asylum, according to Istanbul Governor, Muammer Guler.

A letter to Pope Benedict

He had earlier written a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, hoping for his help to avoid military service in Turkey.

"Dear pope, I am a Christian and I do not want to serve in a Muslim army," Ekinci said in his letter to the pontiff, published on a Turkish Internet blog.

He said he converted to Christianity in 1999, adding: "I do not want to live in a Muslim country any longer.... Only your sublime leadership will save me." He also wrote that he was living in a UN-run refugee camp in Albania, "a country that has good relations with Turkey and is considering to sent me back there."

Package supposedly contained bomb

On Tuesday, he hijacked the plane about 20 minutes after take-off from Tirana, Albania en route to Istanbul. He entered the cockpit and threatened the pilots with a parcel which he said contained a bomb, according to Turkish officials. He forced the pilots to land in Italy.

The Turkish ambassador to Italy, Ugur Ziyal, was quoted by the state-owned Anatolia news agency as saying that the hijacking was a unique incident and that it was important not to link the event with the upcoming papal visit to Turkey. Ziyal pointed out that Ekinci was not a Muslim, but a Christian who had sought the pope's help.

Pope Benedict XVI had angered Muslims around the world with recent remarks he had made about Islam.

Italian newspapers reported Wednesday that Benedict's trip to Turkey would go ahead as planned. However, there was concern in the
Vatican about security threats in Turkey, the reports said.

No links to terrorist group

There had been speculation earlier that another man had helped Ekinci.

Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler, speaking after the standoff ended at Italy's Brindisi airport, said Hakan Ekinci seemed to have acted alone, apparently bluffing the pilot by saying he had other accomplices aboard.

Guler said there was no indication of Ekinci having links with any terrorist organisation.

A lawyer for Turkish conscientious objectors said she was not aware of any legal case against Ekinci in Turkey for objecting the to compulsory draft. He recently mailed a civic group of anti-war activists and conscientious objectors but they did not take interest in his case because he was "inconsistent," the lawyer, Hulya Ucpinar, told
Anatolia.

The agency also reported that Ekinci had a criminal record for using a fake ID card on two occasions in 2003 and has spent time in
jail for bank fraud.

DW staff / AFP (als)

Deutsche Welle 10/2006

2006-09-27T11:26:00.000+02:00

Lufthansa Chief Calls for Modernized Airport Security Measures

The United States have refined airline security measures, adjusting the liquid ban implemented in August, but the head of German airline Lufthansa said searching bags is not the ideal way to catch terrorists anyway.

As of Tuesday, passengers boarding flights in the United States are allowed to carry small amounts of the liquids, gels and aerosols that were previously banned.

Travelers will be allowed to carry travel-size toiletries through security checkpoints, according to the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA). They may also bring items, including beverages, purchased in a secure boarding area onto the aircraft, TSA announced Monday.

TSA first implemented the ban on all liquids, gels and aerosols in August, after UK officials uncovered a terrorist plot to blow up transatlantic flights bound for the United States with liquid explosives.

But according to Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chief executive of German carrier Lufthansa, more needs to be done. Mayrhuber said that safety measures at airport controls should be modernized.

"We need more intelligent approaches," Mayrhuber told the German daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. "We can't catch terrorists by rummaging through handbags. That is a completely illusory notion."

Biometric data for better security

Mayrhuber said he recommended the introduction of biometric features, such as fingerprints, facial measurements and iris controls. These patterns are reduced to mathematical algorithms and can be stored on a chip in a passenger's passport.

He said this data could be added to the information airlines already receive from customers.

"With this, we could effectively shorten the check-in time at the airports," he said. "We could achieve higher security and higher comfort."

Lufthansa has begun tests with a biometric system, in which passengers are issued tickets encoded with their thumbprint data. They can then check themselves in by placing their thumbs on a machine.

Mayrhuber said any systems used to identify passengers would have to be internationally recognized and comparable, though not identical.

"Those are acceptable tools," he said. "Then a passenger flying to the United States doesn't have to fill out any forms anymore." Currently, travelers heading to a US destination are required to fill out several forms for US entry.

Higher technology doesn't infringe on individual privacy

Mayrhuber said he didn't think such measures would violate the privacy of individuals.

"This data is already collected today," he said. "In Bangkok, my face is automatically photographed when I enter and leave the country."

Manually recording such data has a larger danger for error than if an integrated system is created and determines when the data is to be destroyed, he said.

The current system of hand-checking passengers' bags was not suitable, Mayrhuber said.

"Basically it's a sedative for people, who don't think about it," he said.

DW staff (sac)

Deutsche Welle 09/2006

2006-09-26T11:11:00.000+02:00

World Cup in Review: How Did Germany Score?

While Germany came out in third place on the field, international security and safety experts gave the country a winning score for organizing the 2006 World Cup.

From the day Germany was awarded the 2006 World Cup until the final whistle, the country's organizing committee stressed that orchestrating the world's biggest soccer tournament would not be an easy task.

Just less than three months after the last penalty shoot-out, experts gathered at the 2006 European Congress on Disaster Management in Bonn, to discuss the security and communication strategies put in place for the Cup.

Safety was in the spotlight during the month-long tournament with nearly 3 million soccer fans spread across the country and organizers facing a number of major security challenges including potential disease outbreaks, hooliganism and terrorism.

Communication challenges

A terrorist attack was at the top of the list for possible dangers, said Elmar Rüther, project leader for the North Rhine-Westphalia Criminal Police Office.

Rüther said the most important lesson taken from the World Cup was the need to coordinate efforts on an international scale well-before an event begins.

Strategies to promote good communication were successful, according to the panel reviewing the World Cup.

Liaison officers from federal and state agencies, including police forces from across Europe, armed forces and fire departments, were designated to ease the exchange information.

Terrorist attacks foiled

There was an attempted terrorist attack, which was thwarted by the presence and efficiency of the security forces, according Heiko Löhr, project leader for the Federal Criminal Police Office.

An investigation found suspected terrorists from Lebanon wanted to strike during the World Cup soccer finals, which ran from June 9 to July 9 but changed their minds due to the risks and repercussions their act could have triggered, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

Hooliganism deterred

Despite 450 arrests and 2,000 blacklisted fans, there were no major outbreak of fan violence or hooliganism.

"The high visibility of police officers was a deterrent for hooligans," Rüther said.

He added that security forces were "always in the right place" to prevent altercations from breaking out.

The English fan mile in Cologne

For the Cologne fire department, the Sweden versus England game in Cologne, which attracted huge numbers of supporters, was a massive effort.

The fire department chief Stephan Neuhoff said previous experience from a papal visit in 2005 helped organization ahead of the World Cup.

"The planning was okay because the experiences we gained from the Cologne Youth Day," he said. "We learned to respond to large amounts of people moving quickly and suddenly.

"We knew once the English team was gone that things would settle down," he added.

The English supporters had their own camping space at an old shipyard that was set up with projector screens, drinking areas and gave the supporters a chance to hang their flags and banners.

A large number of the 50,000 Swedish fans also wanted to camp, and grounds were set up for them in Aachen, the fire chief said.

"We secured rescue routes and corridors for the medical teams," Neuhoff said. "There were forces available immediately to respond to anything that happened."

Armed forces: World Cup is not our job

Though German law kept them off the streets, the armed forces had to be available for emergency situations and provided ''decontamination units, tracker dogs and removing of debris and for traffic management," said Colonel Henry Newman.

"In total there were 275,000 man-hours put into the World Cup by the defense forces," he said. "The ministry made the defense forces available due to the circumstances of the World Cup -- however, it is not an everyday responsibility for us."

Rachel Ryan

Deutsche Welle 09/2006

2006-09-22T17:26:00.000+02:00

Polish Police Bust Gang Suspected of Selling Babies

Police in Poland have arrested five members of a gang who allegedly sold infants born to prostitutes to adoptive families in Germany and Switzerland, a police spokeswoman said Thursday.

"The pimps would let prostitutes who fell pregnant have the babies, which is something new because usually they force the women to have an abortion," Ewa Olkiewicz, spokeswoman for the police in the western Polish city of Poznan, told AFP.

The women were forced to continue working until their pregnancies were visible, according to a report in the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza quoted by news agency DPA. They were then taken to a clinic in Germany to give birth. The women received a small sum of money for the babies, who were then solc.

The five suspects, one of whom was a policeman, were arrested in the western town of Gniezno after one of the women filed a formal complaint against the gang, Olkiewicz said.

Polish police have apparently teamed up with their German colleagues to track down the buyers.

DW staff / AFP / DPA (ncy)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-09-16T15:03:00.000+02:00

German Press Review: "China's Piracy is Problematic"

German newspapers were especially critical of Beijing's apparent tolerance of product piracy as an effort to boost its economy. Commentaries followed Thursday's talks between Chancellor Merkel and Chinese PM Wen Jiabao.

"Business with China is good. As world champion in exports, Germany shouldn't be bothered that the Chinese are exporting more than they're importing for a change," wrote the daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Friday from Halle. However, Germany still has reason to question Beijing on trade, continued the paper. "German companies openly complain about technology theft and product piracy in China. There is no such thing as fair competition at the moment, to the detriment of Germany as an innovative center of technology." A "raw wind blows there," concluded the paper, and German companies should keep in mind that "not every deal on the mega-market pays off."

"Behind the diplomatic rituals is the realization on the German side that politics has long ceased to be capable of steering China's economy onto a path that meets its own power and prosperity interests," wrote the daily Berliner Zeitung in an editorial Friday. Merkel and her foreign policy advisors are fully aware that Beijing supports product piracy in order to help modernize Chinese companies, continued the paper. "On the other hand, China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao knows very well that he is not seen as a friend in Berlin, though he may have been received as one. The government in Beijing looks on with great concern as public opinion in the West increasingly makes China's economic upturn a scapegoat for its own problems."

"The sober truth," wrote the Saarbrücker Zeitung daily, "is that political criticism tends to simmer over a small flame when economic interests are at stake." As China's most important European trading partner, Germany is interested in how it will get a handle on piracy. "The government in Beijing continually promises solutions, but the suspicion is great that dishonest methods are being tolerated in high places in order to move China ahead economically. The agreement on verification personnel signed in Berlin is just a drop in the ocean," the paper concluded.

"It's problematic that Beijing watches while copying and re-engineering is going on across the country," wrote Die Welt daily on Friday from Berlin. "It's a serious problem that these things are secretly being encouraged and it doesn't promote investment from abroad." The paper quoted Napoleon as having said, "Let the sleeping dragon lie, for when he wakes he will shake the earth from its orbit." China is on its way to being a world power and to creating global problems, concluded the paper. "Dealing with this rise to power, without demonizing it, is the biggest challenge for the US, Europe and Russia."

DW staff (kjb)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-23T13:15:00.000+02:00

Terror Suspect Fled Germany for Middle East, Officials Say

German officials continue to search offices and apartments while questioning witnesses and "contacts" in an effort to catch the second man suspected of being part of a bomb plot in late July.

German investigators have expanded their investigation into the plot to bomb two regional trains to five cities, searching apartments and offices in northwestern Germany and interviewing dozens of people including an alleged "contact" of the two suspects, German media reported.

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, police on Tuesday searched the Cologne apartment of a man they believe was an accomplice of the suspect, Youssef Mohamad E. H., a 21-year-old Lebanese student who was arrested in Kiel on Saturday. The accomplice is allegedly Jihad Hamad, a 20-year-old Lebanese, who is still at large.

Officials searched a Lebanese car dealer in Essen, another business in Oberhausen and a grocery store in Gelsenkirchen. They also questioned a man thought to be a contact person for the suspects and searched his Kiel apartment.

At the same time, new details emerged about the movements of the two suspects immediately after they planted two bombs in suitcases on trains in Cologne bound for Dortmund and Koblenz on July 31.

That night, the two reportedly flew to Istanbul, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung. Hamad supposedly continued on to the Middle East. But Youssef Mohamad E. H. returned to Germany. Why he did so remained unclear.

New details emerge

With the help of Lebanese intelligence, which picked up a call Youssef Mohamad E. H. made to his family in Lebanon after seeing his image broadcast on German television, police were able to catch him. Surveillance cameras from the Cologne train station had captured the two men on film.

German Prosecutor General Monika Harms said Tuesday police had discovered the identity of the second man, Hamad, three weeks ago but failed to locate him. The head of the Federal Crime Office, Jörg Ziercke, had said late Monday that he was confident the second bomb suspect would be captured, adding that police had garnered "a wealth of information" from Youssef Mohammed E.H.

Youssef Mohamad E. H. has lived in Germany since 2003. His alleged accomplice, investigators say, has been in Germany twice and had lived in the country since February.

Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel reported that some of Youssef Mohammed E. H.'s relatives had links to the banned Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and that the 21-year-old was believed to have been radicalized by the organization, which strives to create an Islamic state. Investigators believe that the two may have made contact through that organization. The anti-Israeli organization has been banned in Germany since 2003.

Hamburg Islamic organization under scrutiny

The online version of newsweekly Der Spiegel said that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence service, was following a lead to a mosque in the northern city of Hamburg because Youssef Mohammed E.H. had a poster of the institution hanging in his dormitory in Kiel.

The Imam Ali Mosque is believed to be a meeting point for supporters of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah.

A spokesman for the mosque denied any contact with Youssef Mohammed E.H. "We do not know this person at all," he told AFP.

Der Spiegel said that investigators did not see a direct link between the bombing plot and the mosque but hoped to learn more about the suspects by probing its activities.

DW staff (jb)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-23T13:01:00.000+02:00

German Prosecutors: Second Bomb Suspect Identified

Germany's federal prosecutors have identified a second man in connection with two bombs found on German trains in July. The suspect is reported to have escaped arrest and fled Germany.

The second of two men accused of carrying suitcase bombs on the German trains on July 31 has been identified, German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said Tuesday afternoon. She added that the man had fled Germany and that his apartment was still being searched by investigators.

After the arrest of Youssef Mohamad E. H., a 21-year-old Lebanese students, in Kiel on Saturday, the second suspect is reported to be Dschihad Hamad, German news magazine Stern reported Tuesday, citing unnamed security sources.

The 20-year-old Lebanese man avoided arrest early Tuesday morning and is no longer in Germany, according to Berlin's Morgenpost newspaper and WDR radio.

The man is reported to have lived in the western city of Cologne, where authorities said they believed the two suspects carried bombs on board trains headed to the Dortmund and Koblenz.

Investigators confident of quick arrest

After saying over the weekend that investigators knew relatively little about the second man suspected of planting a suitcase bomb on a German local train at the end of July, Jörg Ziercke, the head of the Federal Crime Office said Monday he was "very optimistic" police would bring the manhunt to a quick and successful end.

He told German pubic broadcaster ZDF that "an amplitude of leads" pointing to involved parties in Lebanon, Germany and other European countries had come in since the arrest of a 21-year-old Lebanese student in Kiel on Saturday.

The deciding tip leading to arrest of the Youssef Mohamad E. H. came from Lebanese intelligence officers after they listened in to a conversation the man had after seeing his face on television, according to the German prosecutor's office.

The cooperation with foreign intelligence services was a deciding factor in the arrest and put police on the trail of the second suspect, said Klaus Uwe Benneter, a Social Democratic Party member of the German parliament's committee for the interior.

No clue on suspects' motives

The danger of a terrorist attack remains until authorities are able to catch the second suspect, Ziercke said, adding that the other suspect or other accomplices could attempt to carry out the attacks that failed on July 31 because of a construction error.

The two suspects' motives for the attacks also remain a mystery, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble told Germany's ARD broadcaster, adding that the threat of terrorist attacks in Germany "unfortunately remains very real."

Alleged involvement in terrorist organization

Youssef Mohamad E. H. was reported to be involved in an Islamic organization called Hisb ut-Tahrir al Islami, a group banned in Germany since 2003 for promoting anti-Semitic propaganda, and to have had several acquaintances with "problematic connections," according to unnamed security officials quoted in Der Tagesspiegel newspaper on Tuesday.

Experts believe that the 21-year-old was radicalized by this organization -- which wants to create an Islamic state -- or by sympathizers of the party within his family, according to the paper.

He is being held in Karlsruhe on charges of attempted murder, belonging to a terrorist organization and attempting to cause an explosion.

DW staff

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-23T12:55:00.000+02:00

Bomb Threat Reignites German Debate on Video Surveillance

Hardly anyone disputes the importance of video surveillance cameras in arresting one of the two railway bombers in the German town of Kiel. But increased reliance on big brother technology is not without its critics.

The use of video surveillance cameras to capture terrorists or crime suspects has been hardly disputed in Britain, where little over a year ago the deadly July 7 bombings led to the arrest of four Islamic radicals.

In Germany, where one of two suspected suitcase bombers was arrested in the northern city of Kiel on Saturday, there is a greater resistance to closed circuit television (CCTV) for historical reasons. The country's data and privacy protection laws also restrict the use of surveillance technology. But that may be changing now.

The homemade bombs were found on two separate trains in the western cities of Koblenz and Dortmund on July 31 but failed to detonate. The second suspect, whose grainy image was also captured by the German railway's film footage, is still at large.

Arrest not possible without cameras

On Monday morning, Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning told German public broadcaster ARD that without video surveillance, the arrest of the 21-year-old Lebanese student in Kiel, who is believed to be connected to a wider Islamic terrorist network, would not have been possible.

Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that video surveillance was an important tool for catching criminals.

"Certainly no one in our nation can claim, that the use of video cameras, which identified one of the perpetrators, is not an important thing," she said at a Berlin press conference on Monday.

The German railways Deutsche Bahn (DB) plans to step up the use of CCTV as part of its overall heightened security measures.

"However, technology is only part of the picture," said Jens Puls, head of the railway's security forces. "We place great value on the alertness and professionalism of our staff on the trains, the stations, and the cleaning and security personnel -- and we plan on adding more personnel on board."

Rail security measures different from airports

Unlike the well established electronic surveillance procedures for screening passengers and baggage at airports, policing the trains and railway stations presents massive challenges.

"We are talking about a whole other dimension when it comes to rail travel," said DB's deputy spokesman, Volker Knauer. "On a daily basis, passengers make five million trips on the railways -- some long distance travel, but largely commuter rides within Germany's borders. We operate 33,000 passenger trains daily. Compare 1.8 billion trips made on our railroad network on an annual basis with only 50 million passenger flights on Lufthansa worldwide in a year. So we don't have the means to screen baggage the same way the airlines do."

Need for alert and experienced personnel

Bernd Carstensen, a spokesman for the German Association of Criminal Investigators (BdK), emphasized the limits of video cameras in preventing crimes and terrorist acts.

"Video surveillance, used retroactively after the act, has been enormously useful," he said. "But what is even more important, is not just what the camera reveals, but experienced security personnel being able to evaluate a potentially dangerous situation on the spot."

Problems of too much reliance on video cameras

But the use of video surveillance also has unintended negative consequences, leading to less crime reporting in general, according to Leon Hempel, a social scientist at Berlin's Technical University, who has done studies on video surveillance.

"The sole focus on a technological fix in fighting terrorism or crime is dangerous," he said. "The unintended consequences of CCTV is that the public feels that the camera is doing the job of recording crime, so why bother to pay attention or report anything suspicious. It leads to a diffusion of civic responsibility."

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a former federal justice minister and one of Germany's most outspoken critics of trampling civil liberties in the name of national security, was even harsher in her criticism of the potential overuse of video cameras.

"There are cameras in the main railway stations, and they have been used to positive effect," said the parliamentarian, who is a member of Germany's free-market liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). "The issue cannot be equipping an additional 5,700 regional stations with cameras. The necessary precautions in large measure are already in place. One needs to find the right balance between personal freedoms and security measures, and we have that in Germany."

Diana Fong

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-14T16:36:00.000+02:00

Ex-Infineon Executive Admits Accepting Bribes

In a corruption scandal linked to German semiconductor firm Infineon, former executive Andreas von Zitzewitz has admitted to a Munich court that he accepted bribes in return for business favors.

Zitzewitz told the court that he received between 70,000 and 100,000 euros ($89,000-127,000) in cash from Udo Schneider, managing director of Swiss sports sponsoring firm BF Consulting, in return for business favors.

Schneider has been charged with spending a total of 260,000 euros on bribes to several Infineon managers, in order to secure lucrative advertising contracts for BF Consulting in the field of motor sports.

Likewise, Zitzewitz is under investigation for accepting bribes in return for persuading motor sports companies to use Schneider's agency.

"In principle, I was always uncomfortable, but on the other hand, I was happy about the money," Zitzewitz said. During the time that he took the bribes, Zitzewitz's gross income was in the region of 500,000 euros a year.

The ex-Infineon manager also pointed the finger at former colleague Harald Eggers, another ex-manager whom Zitzewitz said also took bribes from Schneider.

Zitzewitz resigned last July amid speculation of financial impropriety at Infineon.

Infineon is not under investigation and has pledged to cooperate fully with the authorities. It also terminated all motor sports sponsorships in March 2004, following the departure of former CEO Ulrich Schumacher.

DW staff (dc)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-12T13:09:00.000+02:00

Foiled British Attack Triggers Security Debate in Germany

The foiled plot to blow up planes flying from Britain to the US has reignited a security debate in Germany with politicians split on tightening counter-terrorism laws.

A day after news emerged that British police had stopped a potentially massive terrorist strike, Germany was debating the security lessons to be drawn from the bomb scare. Politicians from the ruling conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) called for a rethink of Germany's security concept.

"We have to ask ourselves whether we would have been as successful with our security measures," Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy parliamentary group leader of the CDU, told reporters.

"We have to determine whether, in a similar situation, we would have discovered the explosive material in baggage checks," Bosbach said, referring to reports that terrorists planned to smuggle liquid explosives in hand luggage on flights from Britain to the US.

Bavaria's Interior Minister Günther Beckstein of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of the CDU, said Germany had to be prepared for an abstract and heightened terror threat.

"We are also in the sights of the terrorists," Beckstein said.

Conservatives demand central anti-terror register

Conservative politicians are also in favor of introducing a Germany-wide anti-terrorism register, which has been a bone of contention for months between the government and the federal states.

The planned register would not just contain a database of suspects and groups, but would also list names and details of foundations and companies with possible links to the Islamist scene. The idea is that all security, intelligence and counter-crime agencies both at the state and federal level would have access to the register.

On Friday, Beckstein said that the events in Britain showed that Germany needed a closer networking of its myriad security agencies if quick decisions needed to be taken in an emergency. Cooperation between the various agencies is too slow and bureaucratic at present, Beckstein said.

"A Germany-wide anti-terrorism register is urgently needed," Beckstein said, adding that security loopholes in German counter-terrorism laws also needed to be closed.

Hartmut Koschyk, CSU domestic security expert, said the government needed to agree on a legal framework that would allow the army to counter terrorist attacks in the air and on water.

He also demanded that the states be more careful about selecting people for naturalization.

"There are extremists who deliberately seek the protection of German citizenship," he said.

Opposition: security worries exaggerated

Opposition politicians strongly object to the proposals, saying the conservatives' security concerns are overblown.

Fritz Kuhn, parliamentary leader of the Green party said it was important that there is good cooperation between the police and intelligence agencies, but said he was against the idea of a national anti-terror register that would enable the police to automatically access all intelligence information.

Kuhn added that the current practice of information-sharing was "completely sufficient."

"It's important that we first see what exactly happened in England," Kuhn said. "The decisive thing is that security checks at airports have to be improved."

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a former justice minister and member of the opposition free-market liberal FDP also called for a more level-headed discussion.

"The citizens shouldn't be made uneasy without a well-founded reason," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said, adding that she didn't think Germany was facing an increased terrorist threat.

DW staff (sp)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-11T13:56:00.000+02:00

Technorati Profile

2006-08-11T10:51:00.000+02:00

Europe on High Alert After British Terror Scare

The thwarting of an attack in Britain to blow up aircraft in mid-flight has underlined the need for Europe to stay both tough and vigilant when it comes to fighting terrorism, according to security experts in Germany.

The thought of having narrowly avoided a potentially major terrorist attack sent jitters through western Europe Thursday as British authorities said they had foiled assaults on a "number of aircraft." Police arrested 21 people in the UK as the incident once again raised questions about the level of threat Europe faces from terrorism since the September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

"This is certainly not just a British problem, but affects all Europeans who are grappling with the problem of homegrown terrorism," said Berndt Georg Thamm, an expert on terrorism.

Not the only attack foiled?

"Reality has caught up with us after the World Cup," said Klaus Jansen, head of the German Detective's Association (BDK). "Whether it's the two bombs found in Dortmund and Koblenz on the rail network (earlier this month) or the current attack in England, it shows that there's a constant latent threat," Janssen said. "We can't afford to lower our guard."

Others point out that the current incident is by no means an isolated one.

"The media always seizes on the attacks that have already happened -- Sept. 11, Madrid, London," said David Schiller, a terrorism expert. "But let's not forget that, every year since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists have planned at least one attack or series of attacks in Europe per year which have been foiled. These things don't make it into the press."

The handiwork of al Qaeda?

Though Britain hasn't released details on the identity of those arrested, experts say the nature of the alleged plot suggests a connection to al Qaeda.

"In the last two months al Qaeda promised that it would avenge Iraq and Afghanistan by attacking British and American aviation assets -- I see a direct link with that," terrorism expert Paul Beaver told news agency Reuters.

All signs pointed to al Qaeda planning a strike to coincide with the upcoming fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Schiller said. "The organization is known for its penchant for symbolism and date-specific campaigns," he said. "And al Qaeda is also known to target economic infrastructure, whether it's tourism or aviation."

Thamm also saw a link between the foiled plot and al Qaeda, and he stressed that Germany wasn't immune to attacks.

"It would be fatal for Germany to think we are in a special position because we didn't participate in the war against Iraq," Thamm said, pointing out that Germany had 2,800 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. "Black, red, gold really isn't a bullet-proof vest anymore."

Hand luggage a "weak link"

Airports around Europe have beefed up security after reports that the bombers were planning to smuggle liquid explosives in hand luggage with battery triggers possibly stored in laptops or calculators.

Experts say the tactic is sophisticated, though the idea isn't entirely new. In Dec. 2001, so-called "shoe bomber" Richard Reid was overpowered after trying to set light to a fuse connected to explosives in his shoes before boarding an American Airlines flight in Paris.

"Though there are loopholes in the entire machinery fighting terrorism, hand luggage does remain a weak link," Schiller said, adding that technologies to better scrutinize carry-on luggage, such as sniffing out explosives, still remain in the pipeline.

"Let's face it -- we will not manage to prevent all attacks. Intelligence gathering and security measures can at the most work as the last firewall."

Getting close to the masterminds

At the same time, experts say that British officials' thwarting of the alleged terrorist plot could boost the fight against terror.

"With security officials preventing the attack well in time, there is a good chance that enough proof can be furnished during a legal trial -- which is the right way to go about preventing a major crime," said Jansen. "We have to try to get as close as possible to the masterminds behind the attack."

Sonia Phalnikar

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-11T10:41:00.000+02:00

Britain: Main Players in Foiled Plane Attacks Accounted For

British Home Secretary John Reid said Thursday police were confident "the main players have been accounted for" in an alleged plot to blow up several US-bound aircraft. The country is on maximum terror alert.

A total of 21 people were arrested in pre-dawn raids both in the London area and Birmingham Thursday over the alleged plot, which a senior police officer said was "an attempt to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

Home Secretary Reid said the plot was "very significant" and designed to "bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions, causing a considerable loss of life."

"Whilst the police are confident that the main players have been accounted for, neither they nor the government are in any way complacent," Reid told a press conference, explaining the decision to raise Britain's security threat level to "critical," the highest level.

Reports in the British media said the plot involved liquid chemical explosives which were to be smuggled aboard in hand baggage, though police have not yet confirmed these reports.

Major disruption at airports

Security was ordered to be tightened at British airports, where departing passengers were not allowed hand baggage except for articles placed in transparent bags. There were also restrictions on fluids. Those travelling with an infant were required, for example, to taste the contents of bottles of baby milk.

Long and chaotic lines formed at British airports, including Heathrow and Stansted, as well as Manchester in northern England.

British Airways cancelled all its short-haul inbound and outbound flights from Heathrow to destinations at home and across Europe until 1400 GMT.

Reacting to news of the foiled plot, German officials also upped security procedures at German airports. Thousands of passengers were stranded due to cancelled or delayed flights. German carrier Lufthansa cancelled all flights into Heathrow on Thursday until 5:00 p.m. local time. Three Lufthansa flights that were en route to Heathrow when the news of the plot broke turned around and flew back to Germany.

German politician calls for more security

In Berlin, the Christian Democrats' deputy parliamentary group leader, Wolfgang Bosbach, spoke of a worrying threat.

"The events in London show that we have to increase our security procedures," Bosbach told Reuters. "We have to determine whether, in a similar situation, we would have discovered the explosive material in baggage checks."

The Social Democrats' interior expert, Dieter Wiefelspütz, however, warned against a frantic debate about security.

"As long as the events in London are still under investigation, we shouldn't start talking about further consequences," he told the Netzeitung.

Months-long operation

The British plot was uncovered after a joint operation by Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch and the security services that lasted several months, London's Metropolitan Police said.

The heightened security alert comes 13 months after four British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured about 700 on London's transport network.

Last month, al Qaeda called on Muslims to fight those who backed Israel's attacks on Lebanon and warned of more attacks unless US and British forces pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Independent terrorism expert Paul Beaver said that the nature of the suspected plot suggested a connection to al Qaeda.

"In the last two months al Qaeda promised that it would avenge Iraq and Afghanistan by attacking British and American aviation assets -- I see a direct link with that," he said.

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-11T10:33:00.000+02:00

Kidnapped German 'Alive and Well' in Nigeria

The employer of a German oil worker taken hostage last week in Nigeria said Thursday they have been in contact with the kidnappers and are confident that the incident will end with the man's safe release.

The kidnapped German contractor, whose identity has not been officially released, is "doing well" considering the circumstances, according to Herbert Bodner, chairman of Germany's Bilfinger Berger construction company, which employed the kidnapped man for the last 18 years.

Without giving additional details, Bodner said the company had been in contact with the kidnappers multiple times and that everything had been done to ensure the man's safe release.

Originally from the Bavarian city of Würzburg, the hostage said he was "alive and well," but wanted to go home, according to an e-mail released to the media on Wednesday.

"So far I have been treated well by my captors," the German man, a contractor for the Bilfinger Berger construction company. "They have provided me with mosquito nets. They have also provided me with medicines and even brought me a packet of my favorite cigarette."

The German Foreign Ministry would not confirm knowledge of the photo or the man's identity, but said its crisis response team has been in contact with the Nigerian authorities with the goal of achieving "the quickest release possible," according to a spokesman on Wednesday.

The militants holding him after his kidnapping a week ago from Port Harcourt demanded the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders being held prisoner as well as added jobs and investment in the Niger Delta region by the German captive's employer.

"We are still waiting for our demands to be met," the kidnappers said in a previous statement.

Mujahid Dokubo Asari, one of the men the previously unknown Movement for the Niger Delta People (MONDP) wants released, appealed for the German hostage to be set free.

"Asari wishes to appeal to the kidnappers to release unconditionally their hostage as he has no hand in his travails," according to a statement issued by Allen Onyema, one of Asari's associates.

Onyema added that although Asari appreciated the concern of the militants for his plight, he would prefer a peaceful means to resolve the crisis, Onyema added.

Five additional Europeans kidnapped

The past seven months have seen a wave of kidnappings and attacks on oil facilities and personnel by separatist agitators in the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil and gas wealth. Rebels have often demanded a larger share of the country's profits from natural resources be returned to the public.

Most recently, a Belgian and Moroccan were kidnapped Thursday, and two Norwegians and two Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship off the coast of Nigeria on Wednesday, and three Filipino workers were kidnapped last week in an incident separate from the German hostage taking.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest producer and the eighth largest in the world, accounting for a daily output of 2.6 million barrels, but unrest has cut a quarter of that figure in recent months.

DW staff (sms)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-06T11:47:00.000+02:00

Nigeria Steps up Efforts to Secure Release of Kidnapped German

Nigerian security agents stepped up efforts Saturday to secure the release of four foreign oil and gas workers, including a German, who were taken prisoner this week in the restive Niger Delta.

The German oil worker was kidnapped on Thursday in Port Harcourt while three Filipinos working on a multi-billion-dollar liquefied gas project were abducted Friday at nearby Bonny Island in Rivers State.

A leading separatist group involved in previous kidnappings denied involvement Saturday.

"We have launched a massive man-hunt for the captors and their victims with a view to effecting their release," state police spokeswoman Barasua Ireju told reporters.

She said security forces were hopeful the men would be released soon, declining to give details of the operation.

Unknown gunmen struck near the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) plant in southern Nigeria on Friday and kidnapped three Filipino men employed by Baker Overseas Technology Services, a contractor of the Nigerian firm.

Their whereabouts and the identities of their kidnappers were still unknown Saturday.

Small ransom could release German

There was no news either of the German oil worker who was abducted Thursday along with his Nigerian driver in Port Harcourt, operational centre of the Niger Delta region where several firms are based.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it was not involved in either kidnapping.

In an e-mail statement to AFP a MEND spokesman said the German, an employee of oil service firm Bilfinger and Berger, "was taken by a band that usually involves in armed robberies in Port Harcourt."

"I'm sure he will be released shortly after a small ransom," the spokesman said.

Attacks on oil refineries increase

Since January, attacks on oil facilities and staff by militants have risen in the region, source of Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil and gas wealth.

The attacks were launched to press demands by local communities for a larger share in oil revenues and compensation for the destruction of the region as a result of oil exploration.

Some groups are seeking autonomy or independence for the Niger Delta.

More than 30 expatriate oil workers have been kidnapped in the past seven months but were released after spending days or sometimes weeks in captivity.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest producer, accounting for a daily output of 2.6 million barrels, but unrest has cut a quarter of that figure in recent months.

DW staff / AFP (nda)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-02T13:29:00.000+02:00

EU Privacy Regulators to Probe Data Transfers to US

An EU-wide group of privacy watchdogs said on Friday that members have contacted banking authorities to determine if an organization handling international financial transfers broke data protection laws.

According to newspaper reports, the Brussels-based organization, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions, or SWIFT, opened up its banking records to US officials tracking terrorist funding.

The data transfer program between SWIFT and American authorities was set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States but just became public last month.

Peter Schaar, who is the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and the chair of the EU-wide group of data protection offices, said banking authorities are being asked to provide information about the extent of the program.

"Only when they have established a complete overview of the situation can a decision be made on what further measures to take," Schaar said in a statement, adding that all banking clients, regardless of their nationality or country of residence, have a right to know how their confidential information is handled.

His spokesman added that Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, had been asked to response by July 31 on what it knew about the program.

Financial services giant

SWIFT's huge messaging system routes transactions worth about $6 trillion (4.7 trillion euros) a day through the global banking system. The US program, which was previously secret, taps into this in an attempt to reveal a money trail of terrorist funding.

The US has yet to confirm the program's existence, although the Bush administration has been extremely critical of media outlets for reporting on it, saying it could compromise the fight against terrorism. The US has said it will continue the program.

Critics have said it violates consumers' rights to keep their financial information confidential and is more of a "fishing exercise" than a targeted, legally authorized investigation.

SWIFT, which handles financial transfers for approximately 8,000 institutions in 20 countries, has said it only handed over information in response to US subpoenas after it received appropriate assurances of confidentiality.

DW staff (jam)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-08-02T12:02:00.000+02:00

Homemade Bombs Found on German Railway

German federal prosecutors are investigating a possible terrorist link to two unexploded bombs discovered in Dortmund and Koblenz. The devices could have caused serious injury or death if they had exploded.

Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office in Karlsruhe said on Tuesday it was looking into two incidents, in which luggage with propane gas was found in the western German cities of Dortmund and Koblenz.

"Because of the proximity in time of the two discoveries of explosives, we are investigating an unknown perpetrator and possible membership of a terrorist group," the Federal Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

The authorities said they were still investigating whether the suitcase bombs had been similar to one another or were capable of detonating.

Abandoned suitcases contained the bombs

The railway station in the western city of Koblenz was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after lost-and-found staff noticed a gas canister inside a bag that had been handed in the previous day.

On Monday, bomb-disposal experts used water jets in the city of Dortmund to dismantle a suitcase containing a timer, propane gas and gasoline. A train conductor had found that suitcase Monday afternoon behind a seat on the lower deck of a double-decker train that shuttles a three-hour route between the cities of Aachen and Hamm.

The conductor handed the bag in to the lost-and-found office in the Dortmund train station, where staff called police after looking inside.

Prosecutors said the 11-liter (three-gallon) canister of propane gas and nearly five liters of gasoline inside could have injured or killed train passengers if it had exploded in a crowded wagon.

Motives still unclear

Dortmund police said they remained uncertain whether the device had actually been primed to go off. Jürgen Kleis, head of the team of detectives on the case, said in Dortmund that German police had never had a case like it and the first step would be to profile possible offenders.

The bomb construction was "professional" Kleis added.

"We can't rule out many possibilities based on our current investigations: a political motive, a criminal one or a private one," Kleis said.

Dortmund police were not even sure at what time of day the suitcase was left on the train, which had been on the move since dawn.

Last year a businessman, who had tried to extort money from a German bank, was jailed for 12 years for leaving a bag packed with explosives in Dresden railway station in mid-2003. His detonator malfunctioned and that bomb failed to explode as he had planned.

DW staff (sac)

Deutsche Welle 08/2006

2006-07-07T11:13:00.000+02:00

A Year On, Thorny Questions Remain Over London Bombings

A year after four bombs killed 52 people, survivors are still waiting for a public investigation and security experts say the British government has not done enough to protect the public.

Rachel North was riding on the London subway from Kings Cross to Russell Square July 7, 2005 when a bomb exploded. That moment changed her life, North said, a year after the London bombings.

"I wish I could never think of it again, go to work, go to the hairdressers, go on vacation, do all the things I used to do, without it in the back of my mind," she said in a telephone interview. "But the fact is, people were blown apart next to me."

North, who goes by a pseudonym, began a blog for survivors, helped start a support group, Kings Cross United, and initiated an online petition to force the government to conduct a public inquiry.

"This is not about blame or politics," she said. "The big questions of our time, such as freedom, fear, security, they need to be debated in the public with everyone participating. And even if the government doesn't like the questions, it is us who are bearing the cost --we run the risks on the trains, buses and streets everyday. We want to know what happened and why."

Getting the answers to those questions is proving difficult. The British government says that such an investigation would be too expensive and be a distraction from the war on terrorism.

A communications disaster

But finding out what exactly happened on the busy afternoon in London one year ago, when four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three underground trains and a double-decker bus, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds more, is just one part of the issue.

The realization that the city's communications systems broke down and increased the general chaos in the hours that followed the bombings has added to the sense of frustration among survivors and security experts.

"It was recognized 14 years ago that communications weren't working properly but they didn't spend the money to improve them," said Robert Ayers, a security analyst at the Chatham House, a London-based think-tank. "The first responders did great, but those at the top levels really dropped the ball."

In the days and months that followed, officials launched a manhunt for other conspirators, made arrests, passed laws to tighten security and help investigators with rooting out would-be terrorists. But security experts say the government's efforts have been inadequate.

Not enough

The British government has largely led the police and intelligence services to focus on internal threats, said Ayers, adding that they have attempted to recruit more members of the Muslim community and Asia specialists into their ranks.

But unlike the Americans, who after the September 11 attacks, launched an effort to better coordinate --and centralize -- anti-terrorism and emergency services efforts, the British agencies continue in the same manner as before, he said.

"They have a collaborative approach but there is no organization with final authority, a centralized budget or accountability," he said. "And they have not become better coordinated. One can't take a number of different institutions which work differently and with different mindsets and expect them to respond effectively in a moment of chaos."

Concerns over civil liberties

In the months after the bombings, the British government also passed further legislation to fight terrorism under the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2005 and 2006. This included expanding police powers to stop and question people more easily, doubling the amount of days that suspects can be held with being charged to 28 days, the criminalization of the 'glorification' of terrorism and passing 'control orders' whereby suspects have to stay indoors for 18 hours a day and are not allowed to use mobile phones or the Internet.

Many have criticized the measures as dangerous and harming civil liberties. A British judge ruled last week that such control orders violate the European Convention on Human Rights. Even government officials are questioning the tactics.

“Terrorism-related powers should be used for terrorism-related purposes otherwise their credibility is severely damaged,” wrote Lord Carlile, the British government's advisor on terrorism, in his annual report published in June. “In a diverse community, the erroneous use of powers against people who are not terrorists is bound to damage community relations.”

And it has.

Hundreds of detentions and dozens of raids on Muslim homes have lead to few convictions in the past year but increased tension with the community, officials say.

It appears to be "nothing less than Israeli-style policies of collective punishment in which the Muslim community is being sacrificed and told to live in fear of being stopped or visited by the police," said an editorial in Muslim News, a monthly newspaper for Muslims living in Britain.

And now, that community, along with survivors and the general public are increasing their call for a public inquiry, not the closed-door "narrative" reports the government is offering.

"We will forgo closure to get justice"

Ayers says that a public inquiry, like the one in the US after September 11, is necessary to clear the air and allow victims to close the chapter.

"There is an innate mistrust in the public over what happened and what the government says happened," he said. "An inquiry could put to bed claims, counterclaims and conspiracy theories. And it could help alleviate survivors' suffering and give them closure."

But, survivors say they are not looking for closure but answers that could possibly save lives in the future.

"This is really hard for us -- it would be so much easier to put it all away," said North of the survivors' efforts to get a public inquiry.

"But we believe an inquiry can provide lessons that would save lives in the future. So we will forgo closure to get justice."

Jabeen Bhatti

Deutsche Welle 07/2006

2006-07-07T11:08:00.000+02:00

German Parliament Seeks to Tighten Anti-Terror Laws

The German Parliament agreed this week not only to extend the anti-terror laws passed in early 2001, but to make them more stringent. Advocates of civil liberties are outraged.

In the wake of September 11, German law makers passed a series of anti-terror laws that are due to expire at the end of the year. This week, Germany's ruling coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats agreed on proposals that would not only extend the controversial laws but make them even tougher.

"So far, scans of information databases have only been allowed in connection with terror suspects," explained Stefan Kalle, spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior. "It is now planned to extend this to include rightwing extremists and militant Islamists such as hate preachers operating in Germany."

Broader investigating power for police

The existing laws, which went into effect in early 2002, allow police and secret services to use telephone communications, emails, faxes, bank accounts and travel data as sources of information. Under the proposed revisions, access to the same would be expanded. In addition, Germany's foreign intelligence service, BND would have wider access to domestic police databases.

Until now, the anti-terror laws have been implemented in terror suspect cases. If approved, the new laws would be broadened to include possible consequences for individuals who may belong to extremist organizations but are not suspected of terror crimes.

The proposal, intended to help combat Islamic fundamentalists as well as rightwing extremists, is scheduled to be put up for approval after the parliament's summer recess.

A "cookie monster"

The proposals however have run into fierce opposition in some quarters.

The government is acting like a "Cookie Monster," said Wolfgang Wieland, speaker for domestic affairs of the left-leaning Green party. "They always want more, more, more and are never satisfied," Wieland told German news agency dpa.

Wieland is not alone in his criticism. Hans Christian Ströbele, a senior Green Party member, was a bitter opponent of the first set of anti-terror laws "because they amount to a gross violation of our democratic rights, first and foremost our right to privacy. The new measures cap it all because they even expand these violations to even more sectors of the population."

Max Stadler from the free-market liberal Free Democrats argued that the laws are yet another step toward an Orwellian surveillance system: "Experience shows that once the door has been opened, the state encroaches further and further on our civil rights," he said. "My worst fears are coming true, especially when you see that police duties are to be taken over by the secret services, which no one really controls in this country."

History knows both sides

Germany has experience with both sides of the issue in its recent collective memory.

On the one hand, the country experienced consequences of catastrophic proportions when Nazi rightwing extremists gained a foothold in the 1930s. And in the 1970s and 80s, terrorist groups like the "Rote Armee Fraktion" (RAF) were active. But on the other hand, thousands of Germans also experienced excessive state surveillance by the Stasi or secret police in East Germany.

When the proposed revisions to the anti-terrorism laws go up for approval after the summer recess, German lawmakers will also have to align their decision with a May ruling from the country's highest court that police profiling to find terrorists is unconstitutional.

Deutsche Welle 07/2006

2006-05-25T12:59:00.000+02:00

Germany Hits Internet File-Swappers with Criminal Charges

In the largest single action aimed at curbing internet piracy in Germany, charges have been pressed against 3,500 users of the popular file-swapping network eDonkey.

In a joint action by the German police and the Cologne Public Prosecutor's Office, some 130 apartments were raided state-wide on Tuesday in search of evidence for illegal file sharing on the internet.

As a result of the action, more than 3,500 users of the file-swapping network eDonkey have been identified and hit with criminal charges for breach of copyright. They are now facing fines of up to 15,000 euros ($19,000) or prison sentences of up to three years.

"This was the largest action against illegal file-sharing offers on the internet that has ever been carried out in Germany," said public prosecutor Jürgen Krautkremer.

Illegal file sharing is usually thought of as the favorite pastime of the younger generation of internet users, but the state-wide, coordinated swoop by the German police reveals a different story.

"Contrary to popular belief, (illegal file sharing) is by no means about young people only," Krautkremer said.

People of all ages were found to be engaged in illegal, copyright-violating activities.

An internet hunt

A couple of months ago, according to Krautkremer, investigators started monitoring a server located in the German city of Hürth, southwest of Cologne. The server, whose owners are not being prosecuted, was itself connected to the eDonkey peer-to-peer network for data exchange.

Using a special piece of software, developed by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry, the investigators profiled and analyzed some 800,000 records , including a 14-gigabyte log file which contained around 40,000 internet addresses.

Individual users were identified with the help of internet providers, and search warrants were issued for those users who could be proved to have shared more than 500 files or, approximately, 25 to 30 CDs during the period under observation.

Positive reactions

The music industry greeted the outcome of the police action in Germany.

"No one should be surprised that we are stepping up our campaign in this way," said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

"Internet piracy has hurt the whole music community in Germany, with legitimate sales falling by a third in just five years," he said.

According to IFPI, some 400 million copyright infringing music files were downloaded illegally last year in Germany.

"When music gets stolen, there is less money left to invest in new musicians," Kennedy said.

Deutsche Welle 05/2006

2006-05-25T12:45:00.000+02:00

Online scams create "Yahoo! millionaires"

By Leonard Lawal, FORTUNE
May 22, 2006: 3:28 PM EDT

In Lagos, where scamming is an art, the quickest path to wealth for the cyber-generation runs through a computer screen.

(FORTUNE Magazine) - Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he's 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck.

Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria's largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives.

Call him a "Yahoo! millionaire."

Akin buys things online - laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs - using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.)

Akin's main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams.

And he's not alone: The cafe is crowded most of the time with other teenagers, like Akin, working for a "chairman" who buys the computer time and hires them to extract e-mail addresses and credit card information from the thin air of cyberspace. Akin's chairman, who is computer illiterate, gets a 60 percent cut and reserves another 20 percent to pay off law enforcement officials who come around or teachers who complain when the boys cut school. That still puts plenty of cash in Akin's pocket.

A sign at the door of the cafe reads, WE DO NOT TOLERATE SCAMS IN THIS PLACE. DO NOT USE E-MAIL EXTRACTORS OR SEND MULTIPLE MAILS OR HACK CREDIT CARDS. YOU WILL BE HANDED OVER TO THE POLICE. NO 419 ACTIVITY IN THIS CAFE. The sign is a joke; 419 activity, which refers to the section of the Nigerian law dealing with obtaining things by trickery, is a national pastime. There are no coherent laws relating to e-scams, the police are mostly computer illiterate, and penalties for financial crimes are light.
No penalties for breaking the law

"The deterrent factor is not there at all," says Thomas Oli, a Lagos lawyer, citing the case of a former police inspector general who was convicted of stealing more than $100 million and got only six months in jail.

"What do you want me to do?" Akin asks in pidgin English, explaining why he turned to a life of Internet crime. "It is my God-given talent. Our politicians, they do their own; me, I'm doing my own. I feed my family - my sister, my mother, my popsie. Man must survive."

The scams perpetrated by Akin and his comrades are many and varied: moneygram interceptions, Western Union hijackings, check laundering, identity theft, and outright begging, with tall tales of dying relatives and large sums of money in search of safe haven. One popular online fraud often practiced by women (or boys pretending to be women) involves separating lonely men from their money.

Attempts to speak to government officials about Internet crime were futile. They all claimed ignorance of such scams; some laughed it off as Western propaganda.

But last November the Economic Fraud and Financial Crimes Commission won a high-profile case that had dragged on for years against Emmanuel Nwude, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years for bilking a Brazilian bank out of $242 million using an Internet scam involving phony bank drafts. The commission is also pursuing a case against 419 kingpin Fred Ajudua, a lawyer and businessman accused of using the Internet to steal $1 million from a victim in Germany.

Some officials, who asked not be identified, said young people are drawn to Internet crime as a way of getting back at a society that has no plans for them. Others see it as a form of reparation for the sins of the West.

Or as Akin puts it, "White people are too gullible. They are rich, and whatever I gyp them out of is small change to them."

CNNMoney.com 05/2006

2006-05-21T19:12:00.000+02:00

A Life Between Drugs, Work and Hierarchy for German Prisoners

Germany's 200 prisons hold more than 60,000 inmates and a further 14,000 awaiting trials. Apart from stray reports of drug rackets, almost nothing is known about life behind the high walls and barbed wire.

High gray walls topped with barbed wire, a watch tower every couple of 100 meters, a stringent security check before you enter and endlessly long corridors and series of steel doors before you reach the inmates -- Cologne's main prison fits the bleak image of slammers all over the world.

For inmates the day begins at six in the morning. Breakfast is followed by school, training or work and the grind is interrupted only by an half-hour lunch break. Prisoners can train to be hairdressers, seamstresses or cleaners. Nobody has to know later that they finished school or learned professional skills in a prison.

"Life is actually good here"

23-year-old Nathalie, who doesn't want to say why she's in the prison, said life here isn't bad. Her cell includes a table, chair, a television and cassette recorder.

"We even have a toilet and wash basin in our cells," she said. "Life is actually quite good here."

All inmates in the prison have to do some kind of work. Andi, 33, who works in an inspection center for electrical gadgets, works with a typewriter since computers aren't allowed in the prison for security reasons.

"This is where we keep track of the radios and televisions that inmates bring in and want to have in their cells," he said. "The gadgets are then sent out to a dealer and checked for illegal things like arms, drugs, money or secret information. If they're fine, they are brought back in and I seal them."

The prisoners can also work in the kitchen, laundry, garbage disposal or in workshops where large external companies also commission work. The inmates are paid much less than what they would get for the same work outside. The maximum wage is about 300 euros ($385.8) a month.

"They have to save a large part of the wages for the time after their release," said Angela Wozlaw, deputy head of the Cologne prison, adding that they can use a small part for shopping.

But Wozlaw also said that the prisoners could only order what they wanted on a list and the items are then brought from outside.

Drugs a part of prison life

Other than work and school, there's not much else the prisoners can do in their free time. They can use a library or do sports for an hour and a half each week. Some of them meet their lawyer.

Each prisoner is allowed to receive visitors for half an hour four times a month. The small visiting room with wooden tables is outfitted with mirrors in each corner to allow prison officials to monitor the meetings. Despite that the visiting room carries the risk of drugs being smuggled in, Wozlaw said.

"I would be lying if I said we can prevent that," she said. "It's just not true. We could only do that if we completely sealed off the prison and stopped all human contact," she said. "For instance some visitors smuggle drugs in their mouth and it's passed on through a welcome kiss. Women who come to the prison often hide drugs in their lower bodies."

Even though it's not spoken of, drugs are a part of life in prison, said Wozlaw, adding that for many the prison is their first contact point with drugs. Drug dealers are often the most respected persons in the pecking order among prisoners, Wozlaw said.

"We've concluded that sexual abuse and rape ranks at the bottom of prisoner hierarchy, but rapists are still a notch above child molesters," she said.

Being treated as humans for first time

Prison official Peter Piontek saidthat scuffles and fights among inmates are a regular occurrence. As punishment, inmates are often confined to their cells for a week.

Many of them learn to eat with fork and knife in the prison for the first time in their lives and for others it's also the first time that they learn to stick to rules and have a fixed routine.

"For many it's really the first place where they are seen as humans and not just as scum on the streets," Piontek said.

Deutsche Welle 05/2006

2006-05-15T09:17:00.000+02:00

Newsmagazine Der Spiegel Admits Staff Spied

Newsmagazine Der Spiegel, famed throughout decades for rooting out corruption and the vagaries of errant politicians, admitted Saturday some staff had been working for the government intelligence service.

In an article in the next edition on Monday, released in advance, the celebrated weekly -- considered a watchdog of press and democratic freedoms in postwar Germany -- said one staff member in a regional bureau had been working for the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) as recently as last autumn.

Another filing from war zones around the world had likewise been providing information to the BND on a colleague working for Focus, a rival weekly news magazine.

The BND, Germany's foreign intelligence-gathering agency, has in effect admitted to committing "mistakes," thereby appearing to confirm indirectly that it had been spying on German journalists.

The revelations appeared Friday in the Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Quoting from Der Spiegel's own article, it said the BND had kept several journalists under surveillance for some years in order to find out the source of leaks from the BND to the press.

Journalists as informers

Former BND chief Volker Foertsch has also admitted that journalists had sometimes been used as informers.

"The aim of the contacts was to prevent publication of prejudicial articles and find out where the journalists were getting their information from inside the BND," he was quoted by another newspaper, the Berliner Zeitung, as saying.

Der Spiegel, founded in 1947, became widely read as West Germany developed postwar democratic institutions.

It achieved its greatest moment of fame in 1962 when its publisher Rudolf Augstein and top editorial staff were temporarily taken into police custody on suspicion of treason after the magazine published damaging details of results of a NATO military exercise. All were later released without charge and Der Spiegel's reputation was secured as a pillar of press freedom in a postwar society ultra-sensitive about the probity of political institutions.

Deutsche Welle 05/2006

2006-05-03T09:27:00.000+02:00

German Hostages to Return Home Wednesday

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced Tuesday that the two German engineers held hostage in Iraq since Jan. 24 have been set free.

Steinmeier, in the midst of a state visit to Chile, said he had spoken to the men, Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Bräunlich, and that they were well, considering the circumstances, the German news agency DPA reported.

"I am happy to tell you that the two kidnapped Leipzigers, Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Bräunlich, are, as of today, free again," Steinmeier said from Santiago de Chile.

"After more than three months of inhumane conditions, they are now safely in German hands in Iraq and will, according to the current plans, return to Germany tomorrow."

"I am very relieved and happy that the German hostages in Iraq have been freed," Chancellor Angela Merkel said of the men's release.

So far, it appears that the men were let go as a result of negotiations with the hostage-takers. The German foreign ministry had established a task force devoted to the release of the hostages shortly after they were kidnapped.

It was not clear whether ransom money had been paid. In a press conference on Tuesday evening, task force member Reinhard Silberberg thanked those who had contributed to the men being let go. He said that, as in the past, the government would not comment on the circumstances of their release.

Nitzschke, 28, and Bräunlich, 32, were kidnapped in northern Iraq while working for the German engineering firm Cryotec.

Their kidnappers circulated a series of three videos during the men's period of captivity in which the hostage-takers laid out demands for their release.

In the last video, which appeared on the Internet on April 9, Nitzschke spoke, calling for help. "We can't stand it much longer," he said. The men had been threatened with execution.

Their captors, a group called Ansar al-Tawheed wal Sunna (Followers of Unity and Prophetic Tradition), demanded the release of all Iraqis held in US-run prisons and told Germany to stop giving help to the US and Iraqi authorities there.

Deutsche Welle 05/2006

2006-04-19T14:34:00.000+02:00

EU Must Change Its Immigration Policy, Experts Warn

Rather than building the walls around "Fortress Europe" higher, as many EU politicians favor, migration experts say the EU needs a new progressive policy on immigration -- for its own good.

More than 64 million people from poorer countries have found a new home in the EU. Many EU politicians have said enough is enough and are ready to do whatever is necessary to keep any more immigrants crossing the borders into Europe.

However, while many continue to risk their lives to get into the EU and as the borders of "Fortress Europe" become increasingly difficult to scale, some experts are proposing a "selective opening" approach to dealing with the influx of immigrants.

Migration is currently seen as a security problem by most governments, according to Thomas Faist, a migration expert at the University of Bielefeld. He says that for a change in approach to be successful, that perception has to change. "Migration is a sociopolitical problem; and it is an economic problem," Faist said.

He has criticized those EU politicians who have used the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks to justify a crackdown on immigrants. "The terrorists of 9/11 were well integrated, mobile people not typical migrants. In this respect, we must move away from the catch-all policy where everyone is a threat to one of selective opening."

How would such a policy work and how would progressive migration experts convince the heads of state to at least consider it? Most EU leaders follow the same thinking as the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy who says: "We don’t want any destitute immigrants, but only those who are especially equipped to contribute in significant and lasting ways to the development of France in the world."

Allowing in only 'useful' immigrants helps no one

Human rights activists and development agencies believe this view to be outdated. "We must prevent the 'brain drain' from these developing nations," said Günter Bonnet of Germany’s Economic Development Ministry. "If we don’t stop the elite from leaving these countries, they will become a wasteland and will not be able to save themselves."

Besides, a small hand-picked group of highly qualified immigrants cannot solve one of the biggest problems in the EU -- namely that the population of Europe is rapidly ageing.

By 2015, a third of the people in Europe will be older than 50. The future of Europe depends on immigration. Migration experts already warn about future competition within the EU for immigrants if policies are not changed now.

Nevertheless, many Europeans are afraid that migrants will take work away from them. These fears are valid and should be taken seriously, says Ulla Mikota of the federation for third world aid policy of German non-governmental organizations.

Europe should see the benefits if migration, say experts

However, she said, the EU should be realistic. "The threat is not about workplaces because many illegal immigrants are unable to get work," she said. "There are many more illegal immigrants living on benefits than on earnings from work."

Mikota demands that EU politicians create more possibilities for people from other continents to immigrate legally into the EU. "We live in the time of globalization and the liberalization of markets and it is quite normal that people move around, not just from poorer nations."

"Europeans have to learn to see immigrants not as a menace but as a chance."

Deutsche Welle 04/2006

2006-04-14T10:41:00.000+02:00

Books by Former GDR Secret Police Officers Spark Outrage

The public launch of two new books on the infamous East German Stasi secret police sparked angry outbursts here on Wednesday, showing that tensions still run high 17 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It took just 20 minutes before one audience member present at the books' release event in Berlin could no longer contain himself.

"You're lying!" the man yelled, "That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard."

His outburst was sparked by author Peter Pfütze's assertion that all of the 550 West Germans who were imprisoned by the Stasi from the mid-1970s on had confessed to crimes the secret police accused them of. "I spent nine years and eight months in prison and I never confessed," the man continued.

The two books, both written by former employees of the GDR secret police, aim to present the notorious organization as just another intelligence service, along the lines of the CIA or West Germany's BND, but which has been unfairly demonized in the wake of East Germany's collapse.

Questionable history

One of the books, "Der Botschaftsflüchtling" ("The Refugee from the Embassy"), by Gotthold Schramm, contains accounts from former Stasi spies operating across the border in then West Germany. Markus Wolf, the East Germans' chief spy, contributed a foreword to Schramm's book.

The book contains accounts of the experiences of 35 former Stasi agents, which the publisher describes as "exciting," "funny" and "enlightening."

The other, entitled "Besuchszeit" ("Visiting Hours") and written by former Stasi officer Pfütze, insists that prisoners were treated well. In the book, he describes visits West German diplomats were allowed to make to West Germans imprisoned by the East German state.

"The prisoners were treated correctly," Pfütze told the audience, some of whom then erupted into sarcastic laughter.

The two authors presented the GDR as a country which respected the rule of law, which operated very normally within the framework of its own constitutional framework.

"The GDR was recognized by 180 nations," said Schramm. "Tell me, were they all idiots?"

Tense atmosphere

But the atmosphere in the room was tense, and the two authors' talks were often interrupted by catcalls, mostly from former prisoners or family members of those persecuted by the East German regime. A man claiming to be a psychologist in the former East Germany interrupted comments from Schramm and claimed the Stasi used "psychological methods of torture."

Schramm rejected the man's accusations that the Stasi were "fascists," saying: "We were not Nazis."

The books' release comes in the wake of another high-profile instance of former Stasi member publicly defending their actions under the former communist regime. In March, some 200 former officers disrupted a meeting at the Hohenschönhausen site, a former Stasi prison in Berlin and now a museum and memorial.

The officers called many of the former victims of the secret service "liars" when they described the terror, abuse and suffering they experienced at the prison.

Marianne Birthler, head of the authority which researches Stasi records, called this new public resurfacing of former Stasi officers alarming.

"They are spreading aggressive propaganda, organized themselves and disturbing gatherings," she warned.

The Stasi compiled surveillance files on approximately 6,000,000 East German citizens -- more than one-third of the population.

Deutsche Welle 04/2006

2006-04-14T10:31:00.000+02:00

Opinion: A Murder Becomes Political

The brother of Hatun Sürücü has been sentenced to jail for murdering his sister because he disapproved of her lifestyle. The sentence comes amid a needed debate on integration comments Deutsche Welle's Verica Spasovska.

By German standards, the sentence handed down by the judge in Berlin was harsh: almost 10 years in jail for the young Turkish man who killed his sister Hatun execution style simply because she lived as she saw fit. To condemn such a life and then extinguish it is an absurd understanding of the idea of honor and the judge was correct to punish such an act with an appropriately serious sentence.

But even during the trial it was unclear what the real motive behind the killing was. Did the crime have something to do with a false understanding of Islam or did the reasons revolve around something else in the family's history? What is clear is that this honor killing is not a unique case.

According to estimates by the United Nations, some 5,000 such killings take place every year around the world, a few of those in Germany. The number of unreported cases is likely high. These murders in the name of honor have little to do with Islam, much more with patriarchal models in families which are often disadvantaged.

Many young immigrants misuse the concept of honor to conceal their own feelings of inferiority in a complex, competition-oriented society. But one shouldn't conclude that the majority of Turks living in Germany approve of what Hatun Sürücü's brother did. This incident should not be used to stamp all immigrants in Germany, especially Muslim ones, as backwards. Still, Germany should not just file the case away. Even though the incident is the exception rather than the rule, the subject has taken on political overtones.

Ayhan Sürücü's sentencing comes right in the middle of a debate about integration policy, which has been raging in Germany for weeks now. Whether about citizenship tests for immigrants, language teaching or the despondent calls by Berlin teachers who could no longer handle the violence in their schools, all these show clearly that the government has yet to come up with an effective approach to integration.

Policies unclear

It doesn't help that Germany's policies regarding immigrants have been anything but consistent. For far too long, conservative politicians insisted that Germany was not a land of immigration. That, in turn, gave foreigners very few reasons to ever put down solid roots here. On the other hand, the left-of-center fans of a multicultural society never even asked immigrants to try to integrate into the larger society. That led to the development of so-called parallel societies and disadvantaged immigrant families, which after three generations now often find themselves living on welfare.

Clearly, immigration enriches German society. And anyway, demographic developments mean immigrants are necessary for this fast-greying country. But immigration must be guided. The serious problem of young immigrants achieving less than their parents and remaining strangers to society must be solved for the long term. Integration will only have succeeded when the children of those who arrived in Germany to work decades ago have a shot at a job and social advancement and enjoy the same opportunities as German children do.

But for Hatun Sürücü, murdered in the street by a member of her own family, that will have come too late.

Deutsche Welle 04/2006

2006-04-10T12:18:00.000+02:00

German Hostages in Iraq Plead for Help in Internet Video

Two German hostages held in Iraq appeared in a video on the Internet on Sunday pleading for their lives while their kidnappers vowed to punish them unless their demands were met.

The kidnappers, a group called Ansar al-Tawheed wal Sunna (Followers of Unity and Prophetic Tradition), demanded the release of all Iraqis held in US-run prisons and told Germany to stop giving help to the US and Iraqi authorities.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government was scrutinizing the video of engineers Thomas Nitzschke, 28, and Rene Bräunlich, 32, which was posted on an Islamic Internet site on Sunday.

"We are closely scrutinizing the video we have received of the hostages," Merkel said, adding: "We will do everything in our power to save the hostages and to bring them back to Germany."

In the 24-second video, dated March 28, Nitzschke pleads with the German government to save him and Bräunlich.

"Breaking point"

"We have been held captive here for more than 60 days. We are close to breaking point. Please help us. Please help us," he said.

The video shows the two hostages looking haggard and wearing beards.

In an accompanying statement the kidnappers threatened: "Know that if our two demands -- the release of all Iraqi men and women held in occupation prisons and a halt to all aid to Americans and their agents, including Shiites -- are not met, punishment will be meted out quickly.

"Those of you who help the occupiers, the infidels and the Shiites, know that you and your citizens will not escape the jihadists (holy warriors)."

The German foreign ministry said it was analyzing the video to confirm that it indeed featured the two Germans who were seized near the Baiji oil refinery in northern Iraq on January 24.

"We still have to analyze the video," a spokeswoman told AFP.

Previous videos

Germans have for weeks feared for the lives of the two men, who both come from Leipzig, in the east of the country. They were working for a German company on short-term contracts when they were seized.

Their captors have previously released three videos of them, the first just three days after they were taken hostage. The second was shown on the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera on Jan. 31.

In it the kidnappers threatened to kill the hostages within 72 hours unless Berlin closed its embassy in Baghdad and ended cooperation with the Iraq government. They also demanded that all German companies withdraw from Iraq.

The most recent video was aired by Al-Arabiya news channel on Feb. 13 and showed the hostages kneeling in front of men wearing hoods and brandishing automatic weapons.

ARD television in late March said the German government had received indications that the men were still alive but had failed to establish direct contact with the kidnappers. The television channel cited unnamed government sources as saying the captors were demanding a ransom.

Residents of Leipzig have been holding candle-lit vigils for the men at the beginning of every week. They said they would hold the 21st vigil on Monday in the city's Nicholas Church and pray for their safe release.

Deutsche Welle 04/2006

2006-04-07T14:23:00.000+02:00

German Hostage in Colombia Freed by Rebels After Five Years

A German citizen held hostage for five years by Colombian FARC guerrillas has been freed, the German foreign ministry said.

"I am relieved that the German government and the crisis team of the foreign ministry have managed to win the release of Mr. Lothar Hintze after years of patient work," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.

"This would not have been possible without cooperation based on trust with the Colombian government, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Catholic Church. I would like to thank all those involved for that."

He said Hintze was in safe hands and the embassy in Bogota would provide him with any additional assistance he needed.

Hintze was freed Tuesday, more than five years after being kidnapped by rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in March 2001, foreign ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner told reporters.

He added that the guerrillas had never made political demands on the German government as a condition of Hintze's release.

The FARC is believed to be holding several hundred hostages, including civilians and low-ranking soldiers and police.

Many of their hostages -- such as former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, kidnapped in 2002 -- have been held for years.

Steinmeier said the foreign ministry was still doing everything in its power to secure the release of two German engineers, Rene Bräunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, who were kidnapped in Iraq in January.

"Our thoughts are with the two German hostages in Iraq and with their families in Leipzig," he said.

Deutsche Welle 04/2006

2006-03-28T12:46:00.000+02:00

Museum Camera Films Merkel's Apartment in Security Breach

A German newspaper has uncovered a leak in the security system to protect Chancellor Angela Merkel: A security camera on top of a building close to Merkel's apartment has filmed the chancellor's private life for years.

For the past eight years German chancellor Angela Merkel has never been fully private in her living room.

According to Bild am Sonntag tabloid, a 24-hour security camera on top of the neighboring Pergamon Museum was not only able to film the outside of Merkel's apartment, but also recorded shots of the chancellor and her husband through a window.

Originally the camera was intended to protect the museum and its renowned treasures of world cultural history.

But it boasts a strong zoom factor that is also able to relay clear pictures to the museum's security personnel who monitor movements in and around the building through a number of closed-circuit surveillance cameras. Especially at night the brightly lit chancellor's apartment was open to observation from outside.

Police investigates security breech

So far it is not yet clear whether the museum's security personnel really have been watching Merkel and her husband. A spokesman for Germany's federal criminal office said this was currently being investigated.

The criminal office, which is in charge of the chancellor's security, wants to know specifically if any recorded footage of Angela Merkel's private life still exists. It also admitted that the camera hadn't been detected for years -- not even by its own security agents posted outside Merkel's apartment.

A spokesman for the Pergamon Museum told the tabloid on Monday that the camera had now been adjusted to prevent further filming.

After becoming chancellor in November last year, Angela Merkel and her husband Joachim Sauer decided against moving into an apartment situated in the chancellery building and reserved for government leaders.

Deutsche Welle 03/2006

2006-03-23T13:25:00.000+01:00

Hamburg Prepares For Hooligans With New Temporary Jail

In anticipation of trouble at this summer’s World Cup, authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg are building a special temporary jail to hold hooligans on the site of a former car wash.

The prison will be able to hold up to 150 prisoners and the cells will be outfitted like those found in the city's main police station but will be specifically for people who have been "temporarily taken into custody" in order to avert violence, police spokesman Marco Haase said in a statement.

The jail is expected to cost 3.8 million euros ($4.6 million) to build and will be part of the 8.8 million euro budget the city has set aside for security during the month-long soccer tournament. The budget is specifically for covering the cost of police and fire department overtime and the employment of additional personnel.

Possible volatile quarter-final scenarios

Hooligans arrested at the World Cup can be held for up to two weeks in the most extreme of cases. "We want a peaceful World Cup and we hope that these rooms aren't going to be necessary," Haase said.

Five of the 64 World Cup matches are to be played in Hamburg although none of the clashes in the group stage, except maybe the June 22 match between the Czech Republic and Italy, are classified as high risk.

The quarter final to be played in the city on June 30 could potentially feature a more volatile match featuring two teams from hosts Germany, England, the Netherlands and Argentina.

Deutsche Welle 03/2006

2006-03-23T13:20:00.000+01:00

EU Blacklists Unsafe Airlines

The European Union approved on Wednesday the first joint blacklist of nearly 100 mostly African airlines considered to be unsafe, in a move spurred by a spate of fatal crashes last year.

The list, which goes into effect on Saturday, bans 92 airlines from flying EU skies all together and puts restrictions on another three from flying certain types of airplanes into the 25-nation bloc.

"The European Union now has a coherent approach to banning airlines," Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.

"This blacklist will keep dubious airlines out of Europe. It will also make sure that all airlines operating in Europe's skies meet the highest safety standards."

EU member states were stung into action after a string of deadly accidents last year that highlighted the fragmented approach to air safety in the 25-nation bloc.

The blacklist will work on the principle that an airline banned in one EU member will be outlawed in the whole bloc and the European Commission is to be charged with keeping the roster up to date.

Majority are Africa-based

Most of the carriers on the list are based in Africa and there are blanket bans on airlines from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Swaziland.

The few companies not from Africa are based in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea and Thailand.

Although some of the banned companies do not currently fly to the EU, the list will have a "preventive effect" by keeping them from trying to enter the European market in the future by such means as offering their planes for charter flights, said Barrot's spokesman Stefaan De Rynck.

To draw up the list, member states submitted their individual roster of companies considered unsafe and experts then voted on which airlines should be included on an overall EU list.

The airlines were singled out on the basis of "checks carried out in European airports, the use of poorly maintained, antiquated or obsolete aircraft (and) the inability of the airlines to rectify the shortcomings."

Harmonizing rules

Currently there is a patchwork of rules on suspect airlines in Europe with France and Belgium introducing lists of banned carriers last year, following examples set by Britain and Switzerland.

"We're protecting Europe from companies that try to register in one country after having been banned in another," Barrot said.

"We're protecting Europe from practices which involve sending good planes to the big markets and leaving the flying coffins for less viable destinations," he added.

The incoherence of the current rules was exposed last May when a Turkish airline, suspended by four European countries, simply redirected its flights to Belgium which had no ban.

Deutsche Welle 03/2006

2006-03-22T11:04:00.000+01:00

Report: Germany Believes Hostages in Iraq Alive

The German government believes that two German engineers kidnapped in Iraq in January are still alive and are being held for criminal not political purposes, public broadcaster ARD reported Tuesday.

More than two months after two German engineers in Iraq were seized by unknown assailants, the German government says it's convinced that the two are still alive.

Citing German security sources, public broadcaster ARD reported on Tuesday that "there are indirect signs of life" from Rene Bräunlich and Thomas Nitzschke. It added that the government however had not made any direct contact with the kidnappers.

It cited unnamed government sources as saying the captors were demanding a ransom and that the affair had no political motives. The longer such kidnappings last, the more optimistic one can be "though naturally very cautiously," the television station quoted a government source as saying.

The crisis team in the German foreign ministry trying to secure the release of the two men said they could not comment on the report because they did not want to compromise their safety.

Kidnappers issue ultimatum

The two engineers were kidnapped in northern Iraq on Jan. 24 near the town of Baiji, which is located about 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad.

A militant group called Ansar al-Tawhid Wa-Sunna had issued a final ultimatum last month. The captors have issued two videos in which they threatened to execute the men unless Germany closes its embassy in Baghdad and ends cooperation with the Iraq government. The last video was aired on Feb. 11.

On Monday, around 400 people in the eastern German city of Leipzig, where Rene Bräunlich and Thomas Nitzschke come from, paid tribute to the two kidnapped engineers during a candlelit demonstration to mark the third anniversary of the US-led Iraq war.

Kidnappings not the first

The kidnappings are just the latest in a spate of recent abductions of German nationals.

In December, German archeologist Susanne Osthoff was released in Iraq after having been kidnapped and held for three weeks. According to reports, the German government allegedly paid the kidnappers $5 million (4.2 million euros).

Deutsche Welle 03/06

2006-03-08T11:18:00.000+01:00

Arrest in brazen passenger jet heist

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Police have arrested a suspect in a spectacular robbery of a passenger plane in southwestern Sweden, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The man, who is in his 40s, was arrested late Tuesday just north of Goteborg, Sweden's second largest city, hours after masked gunmen robbed the plane, which had just landed from London, police spokesman Mats Glansberg said.

He gave no other details and did not reveal if any of the loot was recovered.

Parts of the Landvetter airport outside Goteborg were evacuated after the thieves robbed the Scandinavian Airlines plane and left a suspicious package that police said looked like a bomb.

The robbers crashed through a gate at the airport and held up luggage handlers as they were unloading crates of foreign currency from the plane. No one was injured.

Police said Wednesday they had removed the package from the airport, but did not say where they had taken it or whether it contained explosives.

It was not immediately known how much money the robbers stole, but police spokeswoman Anna Rosenberg said it was "a big sum."

CNN Europe 03/2006

2006-03-06T13:53:00.000+01:00

$19M found from huge UK robbery

LONDON, England -- Police investigating the theft of more than £53 million ($92 million) in a raid on a cash warehouse in southern England have recovered £11 million ($19.3 million) so far, police have revealed.

Kent Chief Constable Michael Fuller also told reporters on Monday that a significant amount of money had been recovered in the previous 24 hours, but declined to elaborate on the exact figure.

He also said 17 people had been arrested and five people charged with offenses including conspiracy to rob, kidnapping and handling stolen goods.

Britain's biggest-ever cash robbery was carried out nearly two weeks ago when a gang posing as police officers seized the manager of the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, in southeast England, took his wife and son hostage and threatened to kill them unless he helped them get inside the compound.

Fuller said £9 million had been found at a vehicle repair business in southeast London following a raid by officers on Friday.

Earlier last week, specialist search teams swooped on an isolated farm in Kent and removed several vehicles and a small amount of cash.

A van believed to have been used in the robbery has also been found, containing £1.3 million. However, most of the £53,116,760 stolen remains missing.

Fuller said the scale of the operation was "massive," with more than 300 police officers and staff working on the hunt for those responsible.

Since the robbery on February 22, Fuller said police had seized more than 3,500 items, taken more than 300 witness statements, searched at least 20 premises in addition and confiscated several vehicles.

Fuller said the many "skilled and experienced" investigators in Kent Police were "following up every lead" and examining "every shred of available evidence" in the hunt for the gang.

The force was using computer technology it had invested in recently, including a vehicle license plate recognition system covering Britain's road network and ports.

The case would "go down in the history of crime in the UK," he added.

CNN Europe 03/2006

2006-03-06T11:32:00.000+01:00

Private Security Firms Gear Up for Soccer World Cup

Security is set to be one of the most important topics during the upcoming soccer World Cup in Germany and private security firms are rubbing their hands in anticipation.

Politicians and sports authorities in Germany are at pains to ensure that the soccer World Cup in Germany in June takes place in a cheerful, relaxed and carefree atmosphere.

Recent demands by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble to deploy the German army to provide additional security during the World Cup haven't gone down well with some.

"Tanks in the vicinity of stadiums: That would certainly be unacceptable," Theo Zwanziger, the president of the German Soccer Association (DFB), recently said in an interview. "We want people to hug each other. If tanks are stationed in the background -- even as a preventive measure -- it just wouldn't work."

Even as uncertainty surrounds the deployment of the German army during the World Cup, one thing's clear: Germany's police forces will be overstretched because organizers are expecting more than seven million visitors to descend on the country for the mega event.

This is where private security firms are expected to step in. Harald Olschok, head of the Federal Association of German Security Firms (BDWS), said the industry is gearing up for the event.

"It's a huge stroke of luck for the industry," Olschok said, adding that it also posed an unprecedented challenge. "For a relatively short period of six weeks there's going to be a huge demand: around 12,000 security personnel will have to be deployed. We're not going to manage that with our regular forces."

Boosting existing security ranks

Private security firms will play a big role particularly when it comes to providing security for the 32 team quarters and in the downtown areas in 12 German cities where the games will take place. In addition, they'll also take over security for live game broadcasts on huge public screens across Germany.

"The games will be broadcast on huge screens in at least 200 cities," Olschok said.
The so-called "public viewing zones" are considered particularly sensitive areas from a security point of view. On the Strasse des 17. Juni -- one of Berlin's main boulevards -- alone authorities expect more than 100,000 fans to turn up for the screenings.

Security firms that regularly work for the German league or Bundesliga soccer games will largely secure the downtown areas of the cities where the World Cup games will take place.

One of them, the Hamburg-based company Power, is expecting it to be quite a challenge. "Around 350 to 400 security personnel are usually required for a Bundesliga game and 450 for a normal international game," said Carsten Klauer, the company's CEO. "But that number will probably be doubled during a single World Cup game."

Boosting its security staff is also one of the prime concerns of the company Leipziger Löwen that will provide security in the Saxon city of Leipzig. It plans to increase its current force of 160 to 1,500 temporarily.

"We've worked towards that purpose together with a local labor agency that's set up an extra World Cup office," said Ramon Rodriguez, in charge of World Cup matters at the company, adding that he's still looking for more people.

In theory anyone between the ages of 18 and 40 can apply, provided they don't have any prior convictions. However they do have to undergo a security check by federal police.

Robots to counter logistical nightmare

Most security experts don't foresee any major hiccups during the event.

"In light of the stringent measures such as only letting in persons in the stadiums whose names are already known, we assume that we'll have almost perfect security in the stadiums," Olschok said.

Hooligans will find it tough getting access and if riots did take place, the police would be standing prepared in the background. The private security personnel will however not be armed.

"We have the authority to expel someone, if necessary with force, from the stadium," Klauer said.

Despite all the elaborate preventive measures, there's no ruling out the unexpected.

"When it comes to Bundesliga games, we know the routine very well," he added. "But it's going to be very different at the World Cup. Lots of VIPs, for instance, will be flown directly to the games by helicopter."

In addition, the World Cup Organizing Committee has made it mandatory that all stadiums be secured around the clock during the World Cup -- a requirement that involves a huge technical and logistical challenge.

Klauer's company thus plans to install a robot, both inside
and outside the stadium in Hamburg.

Special training to top it all

Another aspect of the mammoth process involves special training for all security personnel -- as required by the World Cup Organization Committee.

Germany's railway operator, Deutsche Bahn (DB), is responsible for the training.

"Our subsidiary, DB-Training, will train all the 12,000 participants," said Uwe Herz, a DB spokesman. "This is also about things like 'how do I appear confident and friendly' and the like."

There's speculation that DB got the training contract because it's the most important sponsor of the World Cup. What makes things worse is that the DB can't find enough trainers from its regular pool and has to hire external trainers from private security firms for the job.

No hefty profits expected

Despite the seemingly massive dimensions of the whole affair, the World Cup is not expected to bring in hefty profits for the security industry.

"We're making a huge effort here," Klauer said. "We have permanent employees here who from morning to evening do nothing else but prepare for the World Cup. But we're definitely not going to be overpaid for that."

"He's outfitted with special cameras that react to motion and he can feed live pictures to the central monitor," Klauer said.

Deutsche Welle 03/2006

2006-02-28T19:13:00.000+01:00

Lab confirms bird flu virus in dead cat

Germany has its first known case of bird flu in a cat. Tests conducted by the federal institute for animal health have confirmed that a cat that was found dead on the northern island of Rügen had the H5N1 strain of the virus. That's the strain that can be fatal for humans. This is not the first time a cat has been infected with bird flu. A number of infections have been reported in Asian countries. Klaus Stöhr of the World Health Programme in Geneva says this latest case in Germany is no reason for panic. More than 100 cases of the virus in wild birds have been confirmed since the disease first surfaced in Germany earlier this month. The majority of them have been found on Rügen.

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-25T15:18:00.000+01:00

Police arrest two but cash may already be overseas and far away

By Steve Bird, Will Pavia and Stewart Tendler

DETECTIVES hunting the armed gang responsible for stealing up to £50million in Britain’s biggest cash robbery have arrested two people, police confirmed last night.

Senior officers described the arrests for conspiracy to commit robbery as “a significant breakthrough”. The suspects, a man aged 29 and a woman aged 31, were arrested separately in South London. The arrests came hours after insurers offered Britain’s biggest reward of £2 million.

Last night the couple, who have not been named, were being held at police stations in Kent as police searched two addresses in Forest Hill, South London.

Adrian Leppard, the assistant chief constable of Kent, said: “These arrests show our commitment to bring the members of this criminal gang to justice.” Mr Leppard said that the arrests were very positive and directly related to the investigation.

The woman was arrested as she tried to open a building society account with bundles of used notes wrapped with tape marked Tonbridge.

It is understood that the woman walked into the Portman Building Society in Bromley, Kent, and said that she wanted to make a large deposit. Staff, noticing that the £6,000 was bound with tape marked Tonbridge, kept her talking while they phoned the police.

Mr Leppard said that police had also discovered a red former Parcel Force van that might have been used during the kidnapping of the wife of the manager of the Securitas cash depot.

The van was abandoned in a car park at the Hook and Hatchet pub at Hucking, near Maidstone, but was linked to the raid only after police had interviewed the woman.

Timothy Clark, 44, the pub landlord, said that he suspected that the vehicle had been involved in the raid. “We are the only building in the vicinity and we couldn’t understand why the vehicle had been abandoned,” he added. Last night police said that so far none of the cash had been recovered and that it could have been smuggled across the Channel hours after the raid.

Speaking at a press conference before the arrests, Mr Leppard, who is leading a team of 100 investigators, confirmed that police were looking at the possibility that the gang had fled across the Channel. Officers have already seized security camera footage and computer numberplate records of vehicles going through the Channel Tunnel and on the Dover ferries after the raid early on Wednesday morning.

Mr Leppard also confirmed that detectives were looking into the possibility that the gang had inside information for an operation that had been “executed with military precision”.

He said that detectives were keeping an open mind about an insider at Securitas, whose depot in Tonbridge, Kent, was the robbers’ target, but said that the gang must have carried out “extensive reconnaissance”. There are about 60 staff at the depot. A special group of officers will already have begun checking their background, lifestyles, relatives and friends for any suspicious links.

Police believe that the gang must have known that the depot would hold unusually large amounts of money after the January sales. They suspect that the leader may have decided to limit the haul so that their escape would not be delayed. Steel cages of cash were wheeled by raiders dressed in overalls and masks into a 7.5-tonne lorry before it was driven away. The lorry and three other vehicles used in the robbery have not been found.

Mr Leppard said that the loss “could be as high as forty or fifty million pounds”, but that the final figure would not be known until forensic scientists had finished their work and an audit had been completed.

Detectives disclosed yesterday the full extent of the ruthless tactics used by the robbers. Mr Leppard said that the gang were top-flight criminals and were “a serious organised criminal gang that is armed and extremely callous”. “They have taken hostage a young woman and her eight-year-old son and terrorised 14 members of staff. It was a meticulously planned operation and a lot of people were involved. If you are one of those people then please ring,” he said.

“This reward is being offered because we know that someone out there will have seen or heard information that could be vital to our investigation.

“It may be that people involved in crime know something and we would urge them to come forward. This is a significant reward that reflects the serious nature of this robbery.”

Colin Dixon, the manager who was forced to let the gang into the depot while his wife, Lynn, and his young son were held hostage, and the 14 staff who were seized, were still being questioned. Mr Leppard said that the boy had been traumatised by the ordeal.

Mr Dixon, who was threatened at gunpoint, was told that his child and wife would be “executed” unless he co-operated.

At 1am on Wednesday they were all taken to the depot, where the robbers, who were wearing balaclavas and paintball masks, tied up the staff and packed the cash into the lorry.

Police are in contact with their colleagues in Northern Ireland for advice on how they handled the raid on Northern Bank’s Belfast headquarters in 2004, in which £26.5 million cash was stolen.

Detectives have also appealed to the public for help in finding the manager’s silver Nissan Almera car, registration WP52 KPV, which they believe was left in the layby on the A249 near Stockbury and then removed by one of the gang. The disappearance of the vehicle raises the prospect that it has been burnt out to remove clues to the identity of the kidnappers.

timesonline.co.uk 02/2006

2006-02-25T14:01:00.000+01:00

German Police Crack Alleged Missile Spy Ring

German police launched a nationwide raid against a suspected spy ring. One report links the suspects, who were interested in missile technology, with Iran.

The early morning raid on Thursday covered 12 locations across four German states, and netted an unspecified number of suspects, according to Germany's federal prosecutor.

"The accused are suspected of attempting, in the service of a foreign intelligence agency, to obtain parts for delivery systems and conventional weaponry for armed forces," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Police would not say what foreign agency that might have been, but a source told the Reuters news agency that the country involved was Iran. Police were interrogating the suspects after raids in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland. Two men were arrested in Frankfurt, according to a police spokeswoman.

Second espionage case in a month

Prosecutors charged two German citizens last month with espionage for helping an unidentified intelligence agency acquire "dual-use" missile technology. The term is applied to technology that can be used for both conventional machines and weapons.

Germany, together with France and Great Britain, has been unsuccessfully negotiating for the end of Iran's nuclear program ambitions. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has not ruled out referring Iran to the UN Security Council for sanctions -- a move advocated by the United States.

Russia is currently trying to broker a deal by which Iran would avoid the Security Council, but no longer have control over its uranium-enriching process.

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-22T01:05:00.000+01:00

German Money Transporter Accused of Embezzlement

Germany's largest money transport firm has filed for bankruptcy after allegedly embezzling millions of euros from customers. The move could lead to some empty ATMs, but stores aren't worried they'll run out of money.

Heros filed for bankruptcy for all its 23 units on Monday after police investigators announced they were investigating the Nordcash subsidiary for embezzling up to 300 million euros ($356.8 million) from customers including retail giants Metro group and Karstadt as well as banks.

Nordcash employees allegedly pocketed the money over a period of several years, using some for themselves as well as injecting it into Heros subsidiaries to keep the company going.

Heros handled about 50 percent of the German money transport market and moved about 600 million euros per day. The company employs around 3,000 people.

While banks and stores were moving quickly to shift transport to other companies, officials said that automatic teller machines (ATMs) could run out of money.

But a spokeswoman for the German Retailers Association said that she didn't expect the bankruptcy to have a major impact on business.

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-22T00:55:00.000+01:00

US Intelligence Allegedly Bugged German Agents in Iraq

A German newspaper has written that US intelligence services spied on two German agents who remained in Iraq during the US-led war in 2003.

Citing a confidential government paper, the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily said that reports from the two German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) agents stationed in Baghdad to the services headquarters near Munich may have been intercepted by US sources using a satellite telephone.

The newspaper said that, in addition the two agents -- who are currently involved in a controversy over their exact role during the war to which then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was so vehemently opposed -- were "repeatedly pressed" to provide war intelligence from Baghdad to the US commando headquarters in Qatar. It added that the German agents refused to be drawn in, but that 25 of 125 BND reports were officially passed on to the US.

According to the paper, the Parliamentary Control Commission, which is charged with reviewing certain secret service activities, has all the information in the confidential report and will meet in Berlin on Wednesday to debate just how much of it should be made public.

That decision could cause the opposition Green party, which was the junior partner in Schröder's government, to rethink its objection to a parliamentary inquiry over the role of the BND during the war, the newspaper wrote. While the liberal FDP and the Left Party are both in favor of the inquiry, their votes are not enough to make it happen. A change of heart among the Greens could alter that.

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-20T16:02:00.000+01:00

The End of Germany's "Iraq Bonus"

As European embassies and flags burn in the Middle East, the already frayed nerves of German security services are being stretched taut. And with the World Cup starting in four months, there's no relief in sight.

Rage in the Middle East prompted by cartoons in the European press, German hostages in Iraq, terrorist attacks in Afghanistan: those who thought Germany's opposition to the Iraq war would spare them such reports have been proved wrong in recent weeks.

"People forget that since 9/11 more Germans have been killed by terrorism than during the entire (Red Army Faction) era," said Klaus Jansen, head of Germany's criminal investigators union. "We act as though it didn’t happen, because these attacks took place abroad."

Now, many Germans fear attacks closer to home. In the run-up to the World Cup beginning June 9, German security services have been working overtime keeping tabs on possible troublemakers and sifting through intelligence warnings on terrorist attacks. Recent events have only heightened concerns.

A thorn in the side of fundamentalists

Last week, protestors threw stones at Germany's embassy in Teheran and burned a German flag in the streets. Some contend the protests over cartoons in Berlin's Tagesspiegel showing the Iranian soccer team wearing bomb vests have been instrumentalized by the government as a protest against Europe and America's hard line against their nuclear program. But taken with Germany's troop commitment in Afghanistan and involvement in training programs for Iraqi police, German law enforcement officials say they are on a heightened state of alert.

"You clearly have to see that our involvement in the international fight against terrorism makes us a potential target for attackers," said Jörg Ziecke (photo), the head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office at a recent conference. "We’ve been training Afghan and Iraqi police for quite some time now. These training activities have been very successful, and are certainly a thorn in the side of fundamentalists."

But Germany, like the rest of Europe, is still having trouble coordinating its national policing efforts. The announcement at the European Police Conference last week to set up a joint terrorism defense center that would put members of Germany's different security agencies under one roof comes late. And it is only as good as the amount of cooperation police are willing to provide one another.

Plea for a fundamentalist databank

"Nearly every terrorist attack we've had in Europe, we've had relevant information ahead of time," said Jansen. "We simply need stronger cooperation on a national level."

Jansen has been advocating creation of a nationwide fundamentalist database, an idea that has yet to win over Germany's notoriously tough data protectionists. Should it come into existence before the World Cup, Germany would be that much better prepared for potential horror scenarios, says Jansen.

No terrorism weather report

The country's law enforcement community seems confident that every precaution is being taken. At the moment, German police are conducting 194 investigations into suspects with radical Islamic backgrounds, said officials at the conference. But, they repeated, there has been no indication that anything is being planned.

The claim, warns Jansen, should be no reason for relief.

"There is no terrorism weather report," he said. "The message that we have no information that an attack is going to happen is correct, but it means nothing."

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-19T12:05:00.000+01:00

Bird Flu: Germany Prepares for Worst Case

Germany's agriculture minister expects bird flu to spread throughout the country and urged officials to prepare for a worst-case scenario. Efforts to contain the disease have top priority, he said.

After visiting the Baltic Sea island of Rügen, German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer told health and veterinary officials in the rest of the country to be rigorous in enforcing measures to lock down all domestic birds and keep track of reported carcasses. "We must expect that this will expand to other geographical areas," he said at a news conference on Friday, urging state governments to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

"There will be zero tolerance," he added and warned that the rapidly spreading H5N1 virus, which so far has only infected migratory birds in Germany, could easily jump over to poultry livestock. From that point, it is also possible the disease could spread to humans.

Poor crisis management

On Saturday, the minister sharply criticized the ineffective containment strategy on the island. Pointing out that the media and general public had access to the collection points where the dead birds where discovered, Seehofer said efforts to close off the area and prevent the spread of the disease where ineffective.

"Our immediate responsibility is to contain the disease. We must make certain it does not spread from wild fowl to livestock," Seehofer stressed. He called for a complete cordoning off of collection points.

According to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, the disease is highly contagious and can easily be picked up and spread when people walk through bird droppings in contaminated areas. Therefore, all individuals with access to the dead birds are required to disinfect their shoes and vehicles passing through the infected areas must be sprayed down with disinfectant. No one with access to the carcasses is allowed to come in contact with domestic birds, where an outbreak of the disease would be especially detrimental.

Tests return positive for 13 birds

Tests so far have confirmed that 10 more birds found dead on the northern German island were infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. The expanded testing of wild birds on Rügen showed that three swans, six whooper swans and a goose tested positive for the most deadly strain of avian influenza. The results follow three previously confirmed cases earlier in the week.

According to a report on N24 news channel, health officials on Rügen said that preliminary tests on another 17 dead birds had shown they also carried the H5N1 strain of avian flu, which has also been know to kill humans.

The agriculture ministry reported on Friday that one of the dead swans discovered on Feb. 8 and tested for the worst strain of H5N1 had been ringed in Latvia last August. Seehofer said this fact gave rise to a theory that the virus was "being spread from east to west."

A total of some 80 birds have so far been sent to European Union approved laboratories for testing, while another 650 dead birds still testing.

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-17T12:43:00.000+01:00

Situation of German Hostages in Iraq Remains Unclear

The two German engineers held hostage in Iraq will soon be released by their captors, an unconfirmed news report said. Germany's foreign minister said there was "nothing new."

"There is nothing new," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday evening. Shortly before, the Web site of Der Spiegel newsmagazine published an article saying that Rene Bräunlich and Thomas Nitzschke were in good health and would soon be released from captivity in Iraq.

"I don't comment on press reports," Steinmeier said, according to The Associated Press.

Spiegel-Online said that German sources had received the information from Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, head of the Sunni Muslim Council of Clerics.

Just expressing hope?

A spokesman for the council, Sheikh Mohammed Bashar al-Fajdhi, said al-Dhari had not announced the hostages' imminent release, but had only expressed the hope that they would soon be freed, according to German broadcaster ARD.

Reuters also referred to a "prominent member of the council" who said the sheikh had merely expressed the hope the hostages would be released soon.

A spokesman for al-Dhari said Germany's ambassador to Iraq, Bernd Erbel, had spoken with the sheikh a third time on Wednesday regarding the hostages, Reuters reported. The man said he was unaware of information suggesting the Germans would soon be released.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would comment when she received "reliable information."

The two engineers were kidnapped while working in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji on Jan. 24. In videos messages, the hostage-takers have threatened to kill them if the German government does not cut off all ties to Iran.

The foreign ministry's crisis group has been evaluating the most recent video, broadcast on satellite channel Al Arabiya on Monday, in which the kidnappers spoke of a "last ultimatum."

Germany has not yet been able to get in contact with the hostage-takers, according to officials.

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-17T12:29:00.000+01:00

EU Uncertain About Bird Flu's Economic Consequences

Will the recent cases of bird flu found in the European Union make people eat less poultry? Experts don't think so and warn against creating a panic that could have economic consequences.

Italy is already suffering from a "chicken psychosis," as Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung put it. Fearing infection with the deadly H5N1 virus, eight out of 10 Italians have stopped eating poultry. The drop in consumption has reportedly led to the loss of 30,000 jobs over the last couple of months so far. The economic damage comes to 600 million euros ($714 million).

But Bernd Adleff, the president of Bavaria's Poultry Association, said that talk about the bird flu's economic damage was vastly exaggerated.

"You don't need to believe such nonsense," he said, adding that consumers were insecure and hesitant about buying poultry.

But Adleff said he didn't believe this would lead to long-term problems.

"It's just a trend and a short-lived development," he said. "The consumer will forget quickly."

The media's responsibility

Georg Alpers, a psychologist at Würzburg University, also warned against blowing the danger out of proportion.

"At the moment we don't know what the real dangers are and how
we can protect ourselves against them," he said, adding that people get scared because of insecurities that arise through extensive media coverage about the potential danger.

Adleff also blamed the media for the current problems.

"We're hurting because the media constantly report on this garbage," he said. "The consumer start to believe that he's in extreme danger, which is wrong."

EU offers pragmatic help

Officially, no hard numbers exist yet to assess the economic damage caused by bird flu within the EU, said Michael Mann, the press spokesman for EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel.

"We have first indicators," he said. "Some member states have told us about a 15 percent drop in poultry consumption."

A compulsory poultry lockdown like the one that took effect in Germany on Friday could have consequences for farmers who keep free-range chicken.

"We've so far managed to find pragmatic solutions for them to keep marketing their produce like they did before," Mann said. Free-range chicken will still be sold as such even though the animals are currently kept inside.

No state help needed?

The EU itself has little resources to compensate farmers, Mann said, adding that Brussels can help farmers if there's a bird flu outbreak among domestic animals.

Should a farmer be forced to destroy his stock and eggs, the EU can pay for half the costs to renew the livestock.

Farmers will need help if they have to cull their entire stockBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Farmers will need help if they have to cull their entire stock

"We can also raise export subsidies to help the sector to export produce," Mann said. "The more meat is exported, the less remains on the domestic market and that's good for prices."

Adleff, however, said that farmers would manage to get by without help.

"The industry will deal with this on its own," he said. "We don't always have to call for state support."

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-16T14:10:00.000+01:00

No Right to Shoot

Wednesday's high court ruling against a law which would allow hijacked planes to be shot from the skies, has provoked a mixed reaction in German editorials.

The Berlin daily, the TAZ said the court had "proclaimed the protection of human dignity as an absolute," and added that if it were to be taken seriously, a consequence must be an end to discussions on permissible and non-permissible forms of torture. The paper says the ruling "won't facilitate the fight against terrorism," and adds that "the price that democratic societies pay for their culture is not being able to do whatever they want just because it is theoretically possible."

Another Berlin-based paper, the Berliner Zeitung also welcomed the ruling which it said left no room for doubt about the court's views on the law. "The Karlsruhe judges have occasionally reprimanded violations of human dignity through state measures, but never before have they accused the state of passing a law which denies people their dignity and the right to life."

In Dusseldorf, the Rheinische Post described the ruling as too rigid. "That the Karlsruhe court yesterday ruled against the law was not only predictable, but also a crass example of a German passion for rules. In passing its veto verdict, the highest court is attempting to create a legal framework for even the most desperate of situations. A more pragmatic, Anglo-Saxon approach, in which a decision could be taken as and when such a situation arises, would have made more sense."

The Oldenbürgische Volkszeitung said the high court judges in Karlsruhe had shown just how untouchable human dignity in Germany is. "They have sharpened the contours of our democracy. Despite the dangers of an attack, German values have proved victorious. And that makes the ruling historic."

The Frankfurter Rundschau writes that yesterday's ruling is not only "a slap in the face for the previous government but a warning for the current Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble to expand the domestic deployment possibilities of the German armed forces." The paper says "the high court judges have left no doubt that human dignity is untouchable," adding that it is unconstitutional to kill innocent people in the name of staving off danger.

Deutsche Welle 02/2006

2006-02-16T11:22:00.000+01:00

First cases of H5N1 virus (aka. birdflu) in Germany

Germany probably had avian flu for some months before tests earlier this week confirmed that dead birds had carried the virus, a state agricultural minister said in a TV interview on Thursday.

Till Backhaus, from the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where the birds were found, said the affected mute swans were not migratory and tended to stick to one area.

"This is why I assume ... that the virus must have been introduced in autumn," Backhaus told public broadcaster ZDF.

German authorities said on Wednesday that two swans and a hawk found on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen were infected with H5N1. Further tests should confirm later on Thursday whether it was the highly pathogenic strain transmittable to humans.

Local officials said on Wednesday some 100 dead swans had been spotted in the affected area.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the southern state of Bavaria have already banned farmers from keeping poultry outdoors. A nationwide ban takes effect on Friday.

BERLIN, Feb 16 (Reuters)

2006-02-16T09:37:00.000+01:00

Terrorists escape

The International Criminal Police Organization, known as Interpol, issued a worldwide alert yesterday for 23 prison escapees, including 13 convicted al Qaeda terrorists, according to an Interpol news release.

The criminals escaped last week from a Yemen jail. They include Jamal al-Badawi, a terrorist convicted of masterminding the Oct. 12, 2000, bombing of the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen, news reports said. Terrorists pulled alongside the anchored Cole and detonated an explosive-loaded boat. The blast killed 17 U.S. sailors and wounded 39 others. The two terrorists in the boat also were killed.

INTERPOL Media Release, 07. February 2006

2006-02-15T21:28:00.000+01:00

Introduction

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Capricorn Consult
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